And The Band Plays On
by megaotaku98
Summary: Dean has to join his school's marching band if he wants to be able to graduate. He'd rather paint his car pink than hang out with nerds everyday, but a certain blue-eyed clarinet player makes it all worthwhile. Highschool AU, Destiel, slow burn. Based off of a tumblr prompt. Cover drawn by linneart. Rated T for language and bullying and eventual mashing of face.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N: Originally prompt by wonder-whovian on Tumblr, I decided to give this Destiel Marching Band AU a shot. Being in marching band myself, writing this has been fun :)**

 **I didn't follow the original prompt exactly, and the band in this story is modeled after my school's band, although the band in this story will be much smaller, about a class B or C. Also, many of you may come across band terms in this story that you won't be familiar with. If you don't know what they mean, ask me in a review, and I'll explain it the best I can. Or you can try googling it, but it'd be better to get an explanation from someone who is in band. I would try and explain them all within the story, but there'll be a lot of them, and it'll be a hassle to keep adding definitions in parenthesis in the story, and will just take away from the plot.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy, please leave a review to let me know!)**

Dean Winchester scowled as he walked over to the band room, the earlier conversation with his counselor fresh in his memory.

" _Look, your grades are fine. But you need to have at least one extracurricular if you want to graduate. Unfortunately, there's only one group that still has spots available, the marching band, everything else is full. Go to the band director's office next to the band room and talk to him about joining."_

Mrs. Ellen Harvelle (or Ellen as Dean knew her, since she and her daughter Jo had been close family friends for years), had tried to reassure Dean that the marching band was an excellent program, and that he would have lots of fun. Dean scoffed to himself at that thought. Kids who were in the band were nothing but nerds, dorks, and social outcasts. There was no way he'd ever have any kind of fun with them.

Dean knocked twice on the director's door, and stood there waiting for about half a minute before it opened, revealing a middle aged african-american man who glared down at him.

"Um," Dean began, feeling a little intimidated under the director's stern gaze, "I'm Dean Winchester, and I was sent here by the counselor to see about joining the marching band."

"Is that so?" the director- Rufus Turner as Ellen had informed Dean- said, and his glare softened slightly, "well, step on in, Winchester, and we'll discuss it. Do you a preference on what instrument you want to play?"

Dean shook his head as he walked into the office, and sat down in the chair Mr. Turner offered to him.

"Not really, but I guess percussion would be cool," he said. If he played percussion, then he could at least hold on to some of his dignity, since percussionists were cool. Plus, who wouldn't love to be able to hit stuff with a stick?

"Percussion? Well, looks like it's your lucky day, one of our cymbals quit a week ago, you can fill their hole," Mr. Turner told him, and Dean nodded in response.

With that, Mr. Turner gave Dean an information booklet and practice schedule, and dismissed him.

"What took you so long?" Dean's little brother Sam asked when Dean pulled into the parking lot at the middle school, where Sam went, being in seventh grade.

"Nothing really, just had to go to the band director's office," Dean replied.

Sam paused, looking at Dean like he suddenly grew a third eye.

"Why were you at the band director's office? If I recall, you said you'd rather go to hell than associate with the nerds from band," Sam said, eyebrows raised suspiciously.

"Yeah, well," Dean began, " Ellen said that I needed an extracurricular or else I can't graduate, and every group is full, except for the marching band."

Sam began laughing, and Dean glared at him.

"Oh shut up, Sammy! I didn't have a choice ok?"

"No way, this is too funny! Mr-popular-tough-guy has to join the 'supreme cult of nerds'!" Sam taunted, still laughing.

Dean rolled his eyes, and started the car.

"Whatever, let's go. I need a burger."

The first day of band came faster than Dean would've preferred. But here it was, the beginning of the end of his social life and freedom. Who in their right mind would actually wake up early and go back to school during summer break anyway? Whoever came up with the idea of having a 'band camp' over the last month of summer vacation must've been insane.

'Whatever, it's just a few weeks,' Dean thought to himself as he drove up to the school, 'and then it'll be over and life will be back to the way it was.'

If only he knew how wrong he was.

Dean got to the school, parked, and walked into the building. When he entered the band room, he saw Mr. Turner waiting for him, with two other kids, a girl and a boy, who looked about his age.

"Winchester, good to see you here. Sorry about asking you to come early, but since you haven't been in the band before I thought it'd be a good idea to have someone show you the ropes," Mr. Turner said, and then gestured to the other two students, "this is Charlie Bradbury, band president, and Castiel Novak, band secretary. They volunteered to show you around and answer any questions you have. Bradbury, Novak, I'm leaving Winchester under your care."

Mr. Turner walked out of the band room, leaving Dean with Charlie and Castiel.

"Um," started Dean, after several seconds of awkward silence, "hi, I'm Dean, nice to meet you, and stuff…"

The girl spoke up first, "Hi Dean! I'm Charlie, and like Mr. Turner said, I'm the band prez, as well as the Trumpet section leader."

Charlie was several inches shorter than Dean, had traffic-cone orange hair, and was wearing a t-shirt that said 'gay-mer' with a pixelated rainbow above the letters.

"And this is Castiel," she continued, gesturing to the boy beside her, "clarinet section leader and our esteemed secretary. He's in charge of taking attendance at the beginning of each rehearsal."

Castiel, who had been looking away, turned to face Dean. He had dark, messy hair, and was wearing a dark blue sweater vest over a white dress shirt. Beneath messy bangs were the bluest eyes Dean had ever seen, they were captivating, making his breath catch in his throat and his heart skip a beat.

"Hello Dean," Castiel said politely, nodding in acknowledgement. His voice was surprisingly low for his appearance, and had almost a gravelly edge to it.

Charlie rolled at Castiel's short response and lack of charisma.

"Sorry, Castiel is kinda super shy. He usually keeps to himself, so he's not great at socialising," she said to Dean, but he wasn't really listening. He was still staring at Castiel, as if in a trance. Charlie waved her hand in front of Dean's face, which snapped his attention back to earth.

"Well," Charlie continued, "enough with the introductions, let's get to the grand tour! C'mon Castiel, let's go!"

Charlie led the way, Dean right behind her, and Castiel slowly taking the rear, catching up only when Charlie reached back and dragged him forward by the arm.

The tour lasted about 10-15 minutes. Charlie did most of the talking, but occasionally asked Castiel something to include him in the conversation. They showed Dean where the instrument locker rooms, percussion room (which he would be using a lot), and the vestibules (small rooms that had practice rooms connected to them) all were. Dean also met several other band officers and leaders as they came in to get everything ready for the rest of the band members when they arrived later.

There was Gilda Faeren (vice-president, flute section leader, and Charlie's girlfriend), Bela Talbot (treasurer, alto saxophone section leader), Balthazar Talbot (brass representative, trombone section leader, and Castiel's friend), Anna Milton (pit percussion section leader/head marimba, and Castiel's cousin), and they also saw Jo Harvelle (Guard Captain), whom Dean had already known for a long time.

When the tour finished, Charlie ran off, saying something about an important task she had to take care of, leaving Dean alone with Castiel. After a long period of awkward silence, Dean decided to start up a conversation and break the tension.

"So, your name is Castiel? That's an unusual name," he said.

"It's the angel of Thursday. My family is pretty religious, we're all named after angels. I recieved my name because I was born on a Thursday. I also have three brothers who are named Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel," Castiel replied.

"Lucifer?" Dean asked, shocked, "who names their kid Lucifer?"

"His birthday is October 31st. My mother jokes that his name fits him, since he has a habit of getting into trouble. But he's not the only one, Gabriel likes to mess around just as much. It's kind of surprising they haven't gotten kicked out of college yet, but they do well academically so I suppose that is their saving grace," Castiel continued, before suddenly looking away, cheeks flushed, seemingly embarrassed about talking so much, "anyway, you're not the first person to think my name is weird, everyone does."

Dean chuckled, "Nah, I like it. Sounds cool."

"Really? Everyone says it sounds like a girl's name. I get teased about it all the time, as well as for other things about me," Castiel said quietly.

"Doesn't sound girly to me," Dean replied, shrugging. He was a little shocked that kids could be that cruel. Sure, some of his friends messed around with other students, and he admitted that he wouldn't choose to hang around the nerdy kids, but he wouldn't stoop so low as to tease or bully them.

"Hey, how about I call you Cas? That sounds a little more masculine than Castiel," Dean suggested.

Castiel stared at him, surprised.

"Nicknames are something that are used between people who are friends," he said, expression changing from surprise to confusion.

"Well, then I guess that makes us friends, wouldn't it, Cas?" Dean said, grinning and giving him a playful wink.

Cas blushed a little.

"We are?" he asked Dean, now looking hopeful.

"Sure why not? I'm gonna need a few friendly faces to look forward to if I'm gonna do this band thing," Dean responded.

"Friends," Cas repeated, and broke into a full smile that made Dean's heart melt a little, "we are friends."

Dean chuckled again, "yeah, friends."

 **(Woohoo! First chapter done! Hope you liked it!**

 **Now I'll try to update this story as quick as I can, but like I've said, I have a pretty busy life. School is almost out though, and hopefully I can have more time to write and type and update quicker.**

 **Please review, it makes me so happy to get reviews, you have no idea.**

 **Also, I welcome constructive criticism, if you see any errors, let me know, I'll fix it soon as I can.**

 **~megaotaku98)**


	2. Chapter 2

**(Hey! I'm back! And it didn't take me a year! WOOOO! OK so excellent news! I've been so excited about writing this that I've been planning everything out, I've even designed the marching band uniforms, found a show that fits perfectly, and also designed one of the guard flags, and I'm working on the other two! And you can find all of these at the tumblr blog I made! You can find it at /blog/marchingbanddestiel.**

 **Also, if this fic inspires you to draw some of your own art from this AU, feel free to submit it!**

 **Finally, please leave a review, I love to hear your feedback, and getting reviews makes me so happy!)**

Apparently, Dean had a goofy smile on his face when he got home, according to Sam, and later his dad. Dean told them both to stuff it, it was nothing.

In reality, it wasn't nothing. He barely knew the guy, but for some reason Dean just couldn't get those sapphire blue eyes or that glowing smile out of his mind.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. This was a guy, who he barely knew, and who had guy parts, and most importantly, was a guy. Dean liked girls, with their soft curvy bodies, and their lack of a dick. How could a guy ever make his heart flutter like it did with Cas?

It was probably just nerves, he was in a whole different environment than what he was used to. His main preference was still females, and nothing was gonna change that.

For the rest of the week, however, Cas kept popping up in Dean's mind (the fact that he saw him everyday didn't help), and even sometimes appeared in his dreams at night.

Castiel was happy to have another friend. Sure, he was well acquainted with the other band members, but he was only really close with one other person, and that was Balthazar. Dean wasn't the first to give him a friendly nickname, Balthazar had been calling him 'Cassie' since they first met in seventh grade, emphasizing on the feminine sound of his full name, but not in a degrading manner. However, Castiel strongly preferred 'Cas', Balthazar meant well, but the girly nickname did nothing to quell the teasing. It was at least kinder than his usual nicknames- nerd, freak, sissy, asstiel, fag, etc. People could be really cruel sometimes, and Castiel was an easy target, with his quiet nature, lack of social skills, and dislike of confrontation. He never mentioned this to his mother, or his brothers, they were all busy enough, and he didn't want to bother them. Dealing with one's own problems was an important life skill anyway, Castiel could handle himself.

"So, what is this Dean guy like, huh Cassie?" Balthazar asked Castiel the next day, while they were making copies of coordinate sheets for their own respective sections.

"He's very nice," Castiel replied, "in fact we've become friends."

"Friends? Well that's excellent news, you could use another bodyguard to protect you from the pricks at this school. I can't walk with you to all of your classes, and when you're on your own you get tormented."

Castiel sighed, "I told you not to worry so much Balthazar, I can handle my own problems. It's not even that bad, really."

Balthazar's face showed that he wasn't convinced.

"Not that bad? Really? Well that busted lip you got last spring when you got shoved into a locker makes it hard to believe you I'm afraid. I'm still surprised that your mother and brothers didn't flip out when they saw the state of your face," he continued.

Castiel looked down.

"Mother didn't see it, she was on a business trip that week. And Gabriel asked, but I just told him I tripped and fell. Please Balthazar, just leave it, nothing truly terrible has happened, and I don't want to make a big fuss. I can handle my own problems."

"Watcha guys talking about?" asked Charlie, coming up behind them.

"Dean Winchester, the new band member we showed around yesterday," Castiel answered, unfazed by Charlie's sudden appearance. Balthazar, on the other hand, jumped about three feet in the air.

"Good lord woman, you nearly gave me a bloody heart attack!" he complained, while Charlie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah yeah, nice to see you too," she said, brushing him off with a wave of her hands," so what do you guys think about Dean? He seems like a pretty cool guy to me."

"He seems nice enough, but something about him screams 'big ego', probably thinks we're a bunch of losers and that he's better than us," Balthazar commented.

"What? No way," Charlie scoffed, "he probably acts all high and mighty around everyone else, but I bet deep down he secretly loves stuff like Star Trek."

"Well, he did befriend our dear little Cassie here, the most introverted person alive, so I suppose there's some hope," Balthazar sighed, while Charlie clapped her hands together in excitement.  
"Really? Wow that's great Castiel! I was getting worried that Balthazar would be your only friend, he's a terrible influence, and one sarcastic in this band is more than enough for me," she all but squealed, and this time it was Balthazar who rolled his eyes in response.

"Oh please, you adore me," he said, and Charlie laughed.

"Well, I'm done here, so I'm gonna go find Gilda. Peace out bitches!" And with that Charlie walked away.

"I should get going too, if I'm out too long mum and dad will worry," Balthazar said, "you need a ride Cassie?"

Castiel shook his head, "I'm fine walking, I live close to the school, remember?"

"Right, of course, well see you tomorrow then."

Balthazar waved goodbye, and then walked off as well.

When Castiel got home, he was met with a note on the fridge saying what was inside that he could heat up for dinner. His mother was on another business trip and all of his brothers were away at summer interns.

"I'm home," he muttered to himself, as he opened the fridge and took out some meat to make a sandwich, and then go to work on his summer reading. He was nearly finished with his second essay for Great Expectations, which was relief, because while reading was one of Castiel's favorite pastimes, that book in particular was awful, and he wanted nothing more to do with it a soon as possible.

When Castiel was finished with the rest of his summer work, it was almost time for dinner. He stood up, stretched, walked over to the freezer and pulled out a single frozen meal. Castiel had these for dinner pretty frequently, when he didn't feel like cooking something for himself from scratch. It was pretty lonely, eating by oneself, but it wasn't his fault his mom had a job that required her to travel, or that his older brothers were all off in college pursuing their future. Plus he would be eating by himself when he left the house and went to college himself anyway, might as well get used to it. At times like these, Balthazar would often invite Castiel to have dinner at his house with his family, which was nice, but Castiel knew Balthazar's family was busy this week with his older sister Hester visiting, so he didnt want to intrude.

Castiel sighed. Maybe Dean would've invited him or dinner. They were friends now after all. But he didn't have Dean's phone number, perhaps he should've suggested they exchanged numbers during the tour.

On the subject of Dean, Castiel thought back to what Balthazar had asked him earlier. What did Castiel think of Dean? Dean was….charming to say the least. Castiel didn't know much about him, but he seemed like a very intriguing person. Charlie had asked Dean about himself on the tour, and Dean mentioned having a little brother, and a father, but didn't say anything about mother. Castiel wouldn't see Dean until the following Monday, the first day of Music Camp. Castiel made a mental note to talk to Dean some more, and find a way to keep in touch. He didn't know why, but Castiel found himself really looking forward to Monday.

 **(Hope you enjoyed this next chapter, please review, and check out the tumblr page! Have a lovely day, I love you all!)**


	3. Chapter 3

**(Another chapter up and available for your reading pleasure! This chapter took longer to update than the previous and I do apologize, but a month is still sooner than a year so I still count it an improvement. Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review!)**

Dean woke with a start to an obnoxious shrieking. It took him a minute to realize it was just his alarm clock. He groaned in annoyance, and reached over to hit the snooze button, then rolling back over to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

"Dean, wake up, you're gonna be late!" a voice shouted from the hall, jerking Dean awake again.

"Goddammit Sammy," he groaned, pulling his covers over his head, "I've got plenty of time."

"Dean, it's 7:48. Didn't you say last night that you have to be at your band practice at 8:00?" Sam said, walking over and pulling off the blankets, earning him a glare from the bed's occupant.

Dean yawned and looked over at his alarm clock, which now read 7:49. He had ten minutes to be in the band room and ready to start rehearsal.

"Shit," he cursed, leaping out of bed and rushing to get dressed, "I'm late!"

Sam rolled his eyes, "No dip Sherlock, you're just lucky I like to wake up early anyway, otherwise you would've totally overslept."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," replied Dean, ruffling Sam's hair as he headed towards his bedroom door, "what would I do without you."

"Well for starters-"

"That was a rhetorical question Sammy, don't answer that."

"It's _Sam_ ," Sam huffed, and crossed his arms.

"Whatever you say Sammy," Dean replied, and grinned mischieviously at the intense bitchface Sam gave him in return before hurrying down the stairs and out the door.

Dean made it to the school with a few minutes to spare, thankfully there was hardly any traffic. As he rushed into the entrance, he saw Castiel, Charlie, and Gilda sitting behind a table, passing out papers and small folders to the other students rushing through at the last minute (Dean felt relieved that he wasn't the only one who was running late).

"Good morning Dean," Castiel said politely, giving Dean a small smile, one that totally didn't make Dean's heart melt a little.

"Hi Dean! It's great to see you!" Charlie interjected, before turning to Gilda, "see, I told you he would show up."

Gilda sighed, "alright, I guess you win this round. It looks like I owe you a dinner date," she said, before giving Charlie a peck on the cheek, to which Charlie giggled in response, her cheeks a light shade of pink.

"Well, if I say I'm gonna do something, I go through with it. Even if I'd rather be somewhere else," Dean said with a shrug, before hastily adding, "not that I don't want to be here, I just-"

"It's totally understandable," Charlie cut in, "I'd rather be in Harry Potter World for the rest of my life, but oh well, for now I'm here. I do love band though so it's worth it."

Gilda handed Dean a small folder with several sheets of paper inside:

"This is your music, emergency medical form and band contract," she told him, and continued after Dean nodded, "if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask one of us. We're officers for a reason, and that reason is to lead the band and help everyone in it."

"Thanks," Dean said, turning to walk away before quickly turning back, "wait, what room am I supposed to be in again?"

"The middle stage," Cas answered, "although I don't believe we actually covered that on the tour last week."

"You might've but I don't really remember" Dean admitted.

Cas gave a small nod, "well then I'll show you, follow me."

He started walking off down the hallway, and Dean followed a comfortable distance behind. It was quiet for a little while, before Cas spoke up.

"Dean, may I ask you something?"

"Sure Cas, shoot," Dean replied, and Cas turned to give him a strange look.

"Why would I shoot you?" he asked, sounding confused.

"It's an expression," Dean explained, "it's a way of saying 'ask away'. So, 'ask away'."

Cas nodded, then continued, "right, well since we are friends now, is it possible to have a way of contacting you? Since friends keep in touch?"

' _He sure has an odd way of asking questions,'_ Dean thought, before answering, "yeah definitely, here I'll give you my phone number."

He pulled out his phone, Cas doing the same, and they exchanged numbers, Dean promising to text Cas after rehearsal was over.

With a wave and a "see you later!", Cas walked off and Dean turned to open the door, taking a step into the middle auditorium.

Music camp was divided into two parts: brass and battery percussion rehearsed from 8-10 AM, then woodwinds and pit percussion from 10 AM-12 PM. Castiel had the later rehearsal, so he had two hours to take care of his leadership duties, and relax for a while. Since Balthazar was a brass player, Castiel usually spent this time chatting with Anna about various different topics, from good books they'd read to issues that came up on the news. Gilda occasionally joined in on their conversations, with her own interesting viewpoints that often made Castiel really think.

Before they knew it, it was 10:00, and the early rehearsal students were leaving. Castiel saw Dean passing by, and when Dean noticed him, he gave Castiel a wave and a smile, which Castiel reciprocated, before getting up and walking to the band room to go get his clarinet and head to his sectional room.

After the woodwind/pit rehearsal was over and Castiel had gotten home, he pulled out his phone and saw that he had already gotten a text from Dean.

[From Dean: Hey Cas, what's up?]

Castiel couldn't help but smile a little, before typing a reply.

[To Dean: Just got home, about to eat some lunch. How about you?]

Putting his phone down on the counter, Castiel took out the bread, peanut butter, and jelly and started making himself a sandwich - PB&J had always been his favorite lunchtime snack.

His buzzed, and Castiel paused in his sandwich making to answer it.

[From Dean: Chilling with my friends, Gordon and Alistair. I should introduce you, they're pretty cool guys]

Castiel froze when he read the text. Alistair and Gordon. They had been his main tormentors for several years, finding entertainment in making Castiel's life miserable. They mocked and made fun of basically everything about Castiel, from his glasses and sweater vest to his intelligence and love of reading to his lack of social life. It got even worse freshman year when Castiel came out as demisexual, after harboring no form of attraction to anyone his entire life, then suddenly developing a crush on Balthazar. Unfortunately Balthazar was straight, but he let Castiel down easy, and after a few months, Castiel was able to move on. However, proper labels meant nothing to those that bullied him, and Castiel found that homosexual slurs were added to the list of insults that were used against him.

Frowning, Castiel typed out his response.

[To Dean: You're friends with those two?]

Castiel had known who Dean was before he was formally introduced the previous week, he had been in a few of Castiel's classes, mainly Latin. He was quite popular, it was rare to see him alone at any time during the day. Castiel supposed it wasn't all too surprising that people like Gordon and Alistair would be friends with Dean - they were just as popular and well known as Dean was. After all, they weren't the only ones who enjoyed picking n Castiel, there was often a small group that included some upperclassman.

He wondered if Dean knew about how his friends treated Castiel on a regular basis.

[From Dean: Yeah, why? Do you know them?]

[To Dean: I do, but not very well.]

[From Dean: Well, why don't you come over? You could get to know them, and then we could all hang out together.]

Castiel's answering text was typed and sent before he even stopped to think.

[To Dean: No.]

Dean was a very nice guy, and Castiel was glad to now have him as a friend and appreciated Dean's attempt to help him become more social (it was quite obvious what Dean's intentions were here), but Castiel would rather eat a worm then spend quality time with two of the people responsible for making his school life hell.

Remembering his sandwich, Castiel put his phone down and started eating. After he had eaten a few bites, his phone buzzed again. Holding the sandwich in one hand, he picked up his phone with the other hand, reading the message that appeared on the screen.

[From Dean: Why not? You busy or something?]

Castiel finished his sandwich before answering.

[To Dean: Yes I have to finish my summer reading.]

Castiel felt bad about lying- he had finished his summer reading ages ago- but it was the best excuse he could think of, and it was valid enough that Dean wouldn't ask anymore questions. Still, Castiel sent another text, hopefully to reassure Dean that inviting him over wasn't completely out of the question.

[To Dean: Maybe another time.]

Dean frowned slightly after reading Cas's texts, but shrugged it off. Oh well, Cas probably took his schoolwork seriously, something Dean never really did. He went back into the living room, where Gordon and Alistair were waiting, the Halo game on pause on his TV screen.

"So is this Castiel guy coming or what?" Gordon said, looking at Dean expectantly.

Dean had told the all about Cas when they had come over, saying that he was a super nice guy, but was a little awkward and not much of a social butterfly. Dean was planning on helping Cas come out of the plainly obvious shell he seemed to hide behind. After all, Dean Winchester looked out for his friends. When he had finished talking, Gordon and Alistair smiled kinda evilly-though they had a tendency to look sinister any time they smiled, so Dean thought nothing of it- and said that they meet Cas and would love to include Cas in their group of friends.

"Nah, said he had stuff to do. He'll come over another time," Dean replied, sitting down and unpausing the game, cursing when his character got shot.

"Shame," drawled Alistair, "we could've had so much fun."

Dean didn't see the look Gordon and Alistair shared.

About an hour later, Alistair and Gordon went home, and Dean was upstairs in his room, jamming out to some AC/DC, while he lay on his bed and let his mind wander, thinking about everything that had happened that day.

The band rehearsal had been….not that bad. Since he had never picked up a percussion instrument in his life, and wasn't there to try out for any positions he was put on crash cymbals. Which was fine, since he was brand new to the whole band thing. His part was pretty simple, although he had trouble knowing when to come in. But it was only his first day, they couldn't expect him to be perfect. The other members were all very nice t him and welcoming. He had been dreading the first rehearsal all summer, his mind set on the idea that there was nothing worse than being with band geeks. But no one fit the image he created at all. Well, there were a few that did. Charlie fit the nerd part, she had started talking to him a little at the end, starting off the conversation by asking him what kind of video games he liked. And Cas was practically the dictionary definition of social outcast, having only a few friends it seemed.

Cas….Dean barely knew him, but there was something about him entranced Dean, that made him want to help the other boy. He figured it was probably Cas's lack of social skills, and definitely not his stunning blue eyes.

Dean yawned. He wasn't used to waking up early in the summer, and now he was having a major nap attack. He turned off his music, rolled over, and drifted off to sleep.

 **(Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please please PLEASE leave a review! I love reviews, but when don't get any, I feel like my work goes unappreciated. And I put my heart and soul into my fics. Especially this one, being a major band nerd, this AU is my baby my pride and joy.**

 **Also please follow the tumblr page! It still has no followers, and I'm planning on posting artwork about the band and their show, as well as answering questions about the AU that anyone might have.**

 **In the meantime, have a nice day!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**(Check out the tumblr page to see artwork I posted about the show! Also please please review and please follow the tumblr page! It still has 0 followers and it makes me sad :( Thank you to all who did review, you have made me so happy to hear that you're enjoying the story!**

 **Now, I hope you enjoy the next chapter, here we really go into what happens during band camp. And why it is amazing and awful at the same time.)**

"Detail, atten hut!"

"ONE!" came the chorus of the band members in response.

It was half way through the second week of band camp, and they were outside working on marching basics, in one of the school parking lots. Mr. Turner was walking around, looking over the band members as they stood at attention, making sure they were all doing it right. For the most part, the band looked good, except for the occasional fidgets.

"There should be no movement," he said, his voice projected through a loudspeaker that was wired to a microphone that hung around his neck.

Castiel stood in his attention stance, perfectly still, the only movement being his breathing, and the occasional blink. He took pride in his basics, and he was often complimented on them.

"You're like a soldier," Charlie had once told him, "hey since you're named after an angel, that'd make you a soldier of heaven, wouldn't it?"

She then went off on a tangent on how 'soldier of heaven' would be a good username for an MMO, and Castiel stopped listening because he no longer had any idea what she was saying.

"Alright," Mr. Turner said, after his inspection of the band, "you're going to forward march 8, left slide 16, back 8, back march 12, and halt. Understood? Detail, forward, march!"

"And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…" Castiel counted out loud along with the rest of the band as he marched in the directions they were given, using a perfect roll step that gave the illusion of gliding across the pavement.

Castiel loved being in band, marching band especially. After being exceptionally awful at every other sport in existence, it was nice to find something he was actually good at for once, that wasn't reading or schoolwork. Plus, he had always loved music, and joined band at the first opportunity, starting in 5th grade; and now marching band brought a physical aspect to music, which was great because that meant Castiel didn't have to take a gym class, something he was very pleased to hear.

When they finished basics, Mr. Turner allowed them a 5 minute water break, since the temperature outside was sweltering. As Castiel headed to the grass strip in the front of the parking lot, he heard hos name being called, and looked around to see Dean running over to him.

"Hey Cas," he said, grinning and placing his hand on Castiel's shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Hello Dean," Castiel responded, returning Dean's wide grin with a small smile of his own, "how are you today?"

"Hot, sweaty, and tired," Dean complained, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

"I agree, it's very humid outside."

Dean sat down in the grass, picking up his water bottle and taking several long gulps from it, then pulling it away with a sigh, before turning back to Castiel.

"This basics stuff is pretty tricky isn't it?" he said.

Castiel took a drink from his own water bottle before replying, "it's more difficult for some than it is for others. I don't find it all too difficult myself, although with it being my third year in band, I am more experienced."

"You're especially good at all the basics crap. From where I stand, you're in my line of vision, so I can't help but watch you occasionally," Dean commented, "it's like you're floating right above the ground or something, how do you do it?"

Castiel looked away, blushing slightly from Dean's words of praise. Compliments always made him a little embarrassed.

"I just have a talent for it, I guess."

"I'll say, I on the other hand still have trouble back marching," Dean said sheepishly, "I keep putting my heels down."

"Don't worry about it," Castiel reassured him, "it's still the second week of camp, you've only been learning basics for a few days. By the time camp ends, I'm sure you'll have the hang of it."

Dean smiled, "you think so?"

"You show a lot of potential Dean," Castiel said, returning Dean's smile.

"Thanks man."

The sound of Mr. Turner's whistle then rang out, signaling the end of the water break., and Castiel and Dean got up and ran back out to the parking lot.

After finishing basics, they went on to learning the sets of their show of the season: Afterworld. They used chalk to mark the spots written on coordinate sheets that were specific to each marcher, after finding them on the parking lot, and Mr. Turner looking at the form overall and adjusting it so it looked good.

Dean had quite a bit of difficulty reading his coordinate sheet, and kept having to ask his section leader and line leader, Benny, for help. After they found the 7th set of the second movement, Dean looked around to see who stood near him, which would be important when they went through the show without the chalk on the football field. He was happy to find that Cas stood only a couple feet away. When Cas also looked around and saw Dean, he waved at him. Cas returned Dean's wave with a genuine friendly smile that most certainly did not make Dean's heart flutter at all. Ok, maybe it did a little bit. But nobody needed to know that.

Dean noticed as they learned more sets that he stood by Cas pretty often. Which was nice, because now he had someone to talk to during the 15 minutes it took for the trumpets to learn the subset between sets 9 and 10.

It was surprisingly easy to talk to Cas, although Dean wondered why he ever thought it would be difficult. He supposed that with all the stereotypes, he had assumed that nerdy kids spoke through a language of partial differential equations or something.

They spent most of the 15 minutes talking about Star Trek (Dean was secretly a huge fan), and were in the middle of comparing the new movies to the original series, when Dean remembered something he had been meaning to ask all day.

"Oh, Cas, are you free anytime this week? You never followed up on your promise to come over to my house 'another time'," he said, his hands making air quotes.

"Will there be anyone else there?" Cas questioned, his face looking nervous.

Dean shook his head, "no, except my dad and little brother Sam. But dad's usually passed out on the couch due to a hangover, and Sammy's only in 7th grade, so he doesn't count."

Cas seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he answered, "alright, I've finished all my summer homework, so I have plenty of free time. Any day you have in mind?"

Dean grinned, "does today work?"

Cas smiled back, "today sounds fine."

For the rest of rehearsal, nothing could stop Dean from smiling like an idiot.

 **(Well that took a while to write. Not because of length but because I've had a major lack of motivation. It doesn't help that I'm stuck with huge writer's block with the chapter I'm currently handwriting, chapter 6.**

 **Hopefully I can get out of the rut, but it would help loads if you guys review! Also, once again, please follow the tumblr page, I'll be posting more artwork!**

 **In the meantime, have a good day! I love you all :D)**


	5. Chapter 5

**(Thank you so much to those who followed the tumblr blog, it really made my day :D to everyone else, follow follow follow! trust me you're missing out. I'm really proud of my artwork, and I want you all to see it! Also, after this chapter, i unfortunately will be going on vacation, then to camp, then my own band camp (well, leadership camp) will start for me, so it'll be a while before I can update again. Hopefully vacation will help me out of my writer's block, since chapter six still isn't finished.**

 **Well, here's chapter 5 anyways, you guys get to meet John and Castiel's mom, and I can personally relate to the Winchester home,my house is very messy.**

 **Enjoy, and don't forget to review!** **)**

When Dean got home after rehearsal, the first thing he did was took a shower. Then he tried to tidy around the house, but didn't get too far, as there was too much mess and it soon overwhelmed him. WHile he was trying to clear away the living room floor, his dad, John, woke up from where he had been sound asleep on the couch, after drinking too much the night before.

"Hey dad, how're ya feeling?" Dean asked, continuing to pick up trash from the floor.

"Like absolute hell," his dad replied, holding his head in his hand, 'I need an aspirin."

"I got it," Dean said, and headed into the kitchen. He threw away the trash he had been holding, got the aspirin out of the medicine cabinet, filled a glass with water, and took it over to his dad.

John took the pill, and downed the glass of water, handing the empty glass back to Dean with a "thanks".

"You really need to stop drinking like this dad," Dean said in a concerned manner.

HIs dad grimaced, "yeah, you're right."

Dean rolled his eyes.

"So how was the practice today?" John continued, sitting up slowly.

"I think I got sunburned a little, but it was alright," Dean replied, "oh and would it be ok if Cas came over today? I've told you about him."

"Is he the kid with the glasses who plays clarinet?"

"Yeah that's him"

"Alright, well I don't see why not. I'd like to meet him anyways, from what you've told me he sounds like a pretty cool kid."

Dean grinned widely.

"Thanks dad. I'll finish cleaning up, you rest some more," he said, going back to picking up trash and empty beer bottles, "is Sammy home?"

"Kevin's house," John said with a yawn, and soon Dean heard quiet snoring, signalling that his dad was asleep once again. So much for meeting Cas, he wouldn't wake up again for a while.

Dean shook his head. He loved his dad, which was why it sucked to see him like this. John had been drowning his sorrows away with alcohol since Dean was 4, after his mom, Mary, had died in the fire that burned down their old house. She had gone back inside to save Sam, who was just a baby. John had followed her, but returned with only Sam in his arms and a look of heartbroken grief on his face.

After Dean finished making the house look presentable, he sent a text to Cas.

[To Cas: So my dad says it's cool for you to come over]

Castiel heard his phone vibrate on his desk next to his lamp. He read the text from Dean, then typed out a quick response.

[To Dean: My mother also gave me the okay. What is your address?]

Soon his phone buzzed again with Dean's answer. Castiel added the address to Dean's contact info, then went downstairs to tell his mother, so he could drop him off at the right location.

Dean was sitting in his room reading an auto magazine when he heard the doorbell ring.

"I'll get it!" he called out as he almost sprinted down the stairs to get to the door. He opened it up to see Cas standing on the front step, looking a little nervous.

"Hey Cas, come on in!" Dean said, smiling at him.

Cas nodded and stepped inside, looking around at the interior.

"Your house looks…..nice," he commented politely.

Dean chuckled, "I wouldn't call it 'nice', but it's home."

"No really," Cas added, with a small smile, and looked into Dean's eyes, "I like it. It's...cozy."

They kept eye contact for a while, more than what was normal for well, anyone really. Dean just couldn't help but get caught in Cas's intense blue eyes. After what felt like ages of staring, Dean coughed awkwardly, and looked away, his cheeks a light shade of pink. He never thought a guy could have such gorgeous eyes.

"So, uh," he stammered, desperate to change the subject, "can I get you anything to eat?"

Cas tilted his head slightly to the side in thought, and Dean mentally asked himself is this was actually a guy because he was way too cute.

"Could i have a glass of water?" Cas asked.

"Sure, anything else?" Dean replied.

"Um, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," Cas continued, before hastily adding, "I'll make that myself, though, don't go out of your way!"

Dean waved him off, "don't worry about it, you're the guest here. Just make yourself comfortable, alright?"

Castiel sat down on one of the stools next to the counter while Dean went to work preparing the sandwich and glass of water, and looked around the room. He hadn't been lying when he said it felt cozy. The kitchen wasn't very large, and was connected to the living room, but Castiel could tell that it was enough room to live comfortably in. There was a cozy and homely feel to the place, and Castiel liked it. He could see himself coming over more in the future, so long as Dean was okay with it. Castiel guessed Dean probably would be though, he seemed to be a very kind person. It was still a little surprising that someone as kind as Dean could be friends with people like Gordon and Alistair, whose cruel behavior led Castiel to wonder if they were demons from Hell.

"Why are you friends with Gordon and Alistair?" he found himself asking suddenly.

Dean paused in the middle of spreading jelly across one slice of bread, and looked at him, confusion across his face.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Castiel looked down in his lap, embarrassed at his outburst.

"Well, it's just that they aren't really the nicest people…" he said quietly, but still loud enough that Dean heard him.

"Yeah, they do have a habit at poking fun at the more nerdy kind of people, but if you get to know them, they're actually pretty cool," Dean explained, and gave Castiel a reassuring smile, "don't worry, they wouldn't make fun of you, I told them you're a cool guy."

Castiel almost laughed at Dean obliviousness, but fortunately stopped himself. Dean had absolutely no idea that Gordon and Alistair had already been 'poking fun' at Castiel for years, in fact he was their favorite target. But Castiel didn't want Dean to feel bad for being friends with the people who tormented him, and besides, maybe now that Dean had told them Castiel was a 'cool guy', they would leave him alone.

"If you say so," Castiel responded, as Dean went back to making the sandwich.

When Castiel's sandwich was finished, Dean made one for himself, and while he was a fast eater, Cas took a little bit longer. His dad woke up again, and Dean introduced the two. John then got up and got ready to go to work at the auto repair shop that was owned and run by their close family friend, Bobby Singer.

Dean and Cas spent the next several hours up in Dean's room, where Dean introduced Cas to the wonders of classic rock: ACDC, Black Sabbath, Metallica, and a little bit of Bon Jovi, while Cas helped him with his summer reading work.

"Man, how can Great Expectations be called a classic? It's so boring I'd rather watch paint dry!" Dean complained, throwing back his head with a groan and spinning his desk chair around.

"It was very popular during the time it was originally published, and has still been a popular enough book since, which is why it's considered a classic," Cas answered matter-of-factly, "I do agree with you on the 'boring' part, the plot was rather slow and anticlimactic."

Dean chuckled, "you're such a nerd, you know that?"

He had said it in a friendly manner, but when Cas looked down and didn't respond, Dean realized that Cas didn't see it the same way.

"I meant that as a compliment Cas," Dean added quickly, "I should've specified, sorry man."

Cas looked back at Dean with relief on his face. Dean felt his heart twinge at how cute Cas looked at that moment, but he quickly shoved that thought to the deepest depths of his subconscious.

"It's alright," Cas replied, "usually when I'm called a nerd, it's used in a derogatory manner."

"Wait, what? Cas, have people been making fun of you?" Dean asked, completely shocked. Cas was harmless, wouldn't hurt a fly. Sure he was a little awkward but once you got to know him, deep down he was really passionate about the things he cared about. Who could possibly hurt an angel like Cas? Then again, those kinds of people often made easy targets, he knew that from Gordon and Alistair. They always poked fun at the people who seemed harmless. Dean hated that his friends picked on people, and he never stuck around to see them torment anyone.

He turned his attention back to Cas, who was nervously twiddling his thumbs, adjusting his glasses, and avoiding eye contact.

"Well?" Dean added, "has anyone been messing with you or not?"

Castiel continued to look down, not wanting to answer. But from the tone of Dean's voice, Castiel knew he wouldn't stop asking.

"I used to get teased a little bit," he admitted, speaking some truth, although not all of it, and brought himself to look Dean in the eyes, "but not anymore."

Dean seemed to buy it, but Castiel felt guilty about keeping the whole truth from him, they hadn't been friends for very long, but Castiel felt like they had already grown quite close, and anyways, he hated not being truthful- his mother had always reminded him that lying was a sin.

After the subject was dropped, they moved on to talk about many other things, and before they knew it, it had gotten late, and Castiel had to go home. Dean gave him a ride, and when they arrived at Castiel's house, Dean waved goodbye, and invited Castiel to come over again any time he wanted, an offer Castiel accepted eagerly.

"Oh, Castiel, you're home," his mother, Hannah, greeted him from the top of the staircase as Castiel entered the foyer, then walked down the stairs and gave Castiel a big hug when she reached the bottom step.

"Hello mother, how was your day?" Castiel asked her, smiling as he hugged back.

"Same old, same old, always busy, but it's worth it," his mother responded, "how about you Castiel, did you have a nice time at Dean's house?"

Castiel nodded, "I had a wonderful time, and Dean said I'm welcome back anytime."

"Good, I'm so glad you have another friend," Hannah said, and kissed the top of his head, "dinner is waiting in the kitchen, I made sure to save some for you, although I caught Gabriel attempting to sneak your share onto his own plate."

Castiel smiled in amusement, "that's Gabriel for you, I doubt he'll ever change."

His mother shook her head and sighed, "He's in college now,like Michael and Lucifer, but he's still such a trickster. Well, you eat up and get to bed. I know it's Friday, but you should still go to bed at a reasonable time, alright Castiel?"

"Of course, I could never stay up late anyways, I'll be asleep by 11," Castiel replied.

Hannah gave him another kiss on the head and headed back upstairs, while Castiel went into the kitchen to heat up his late night dinner, before heading up to bed as well.

 **(Another day, another chapter done!**

 **my gosh, I talk about faces a lot, and Dean's heart. Oh well, I like how it looks in my writing so I'm keeping it!**

 **Don't forget to leave a review to let me know what you think, I love all my reviews!**

 **See you all again in 2 weeks!)**


	6. Chapter 6

**(Sorry this is so late! I've been busy, i've been slacking a bit, and I've been getting so much shit from my parents it's driving me up the wall. Thank god I'm a senior and I only have to deal with them for one more year and then I only see them once every few months. I' not looking forward to being an adult, but I sure as hell look forward to the freedom that comes with adulthood.**

 **Anywho, this is so far my longest chapter! 13 pages handwritten, HUGE plot development!**

 **Also, I wrote this while jamming to Never Gonna Give You Up [I'm dead serious], supernatural panels, and Jensen Ackles's godly singing voice. I swear he has the voice of an angel. I mean, Misha is my fave by a longshot, but DAMN JENSEN CAN SING!**

 **Well, I won't keep you waiting, enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review!)**

"Alright, good work today," boomed Mr. Turner's voice over the Long Ranger, "head back to basics block for some announcements."

It was the end of the morning Thursday practice in the third week of Band Camp, and the band was working on the drill for the second movement of the show. Everyone began walking back to the spots marked on the parking lot that they used to practice basics, with a chorus of relieved sighs, and a couple of "finally!"s.

Dean grabbed his water bottle from the strip of grass in front of the parking lot and gulped down the rest of it before jogging to his own basics dot.

"Now that you're done complaining, listen up. As you all know, the band picnic is tonight," several cheers rang out, and Mr. Turner paused until they quieted down, "glad to see you're excited. Don't forget to bring your assigned snack or drink, and don't forget what volleyball team team you're on. Winning student team plays the faculty for the championship. Finally, remember that only band members are allowed to attend the picnic, with the exception of parent volunteers. So you cannot bring your friends or cousins or siblings, understand? Good, you're all dismissed."

Castiel stood up and called the clarinet section over for a short meeting, in which he complimented their hard work that day, and went over the volleyball team formation. After he dismissed them, he walked over to where his clarinet case lay open in the grass, taking apart his instrument and putting it away.

"Boo!" said a voice behind him, and a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders harshly, pushing them forward in a jerking manner.

Castiel shook his head with a small smile.

"If you're trying to scare me Dean, it won't work," he said, turning around to see Dean leaning over with a disappointed but mischievous grin on his face.

"Damn, you're no fun," Dean replied, pouting, "Sammy always flips out whenever I sneak up behind him, it's so funny. Then he gets all bitchy and calls me a 'jerk;'."

"Well, I think you'll find that I don't scare easy. My brothers, Gabriel and Lucifer, are notorious pranksters, so naturally I grew up with them trying to scare me. Now, I'm jaded to it," Castiel stated matter-of-factly.

"I can't believe you're related to pranksters. I just can't picture it," Dean said, chuckling.

Castiel smiled slightly. If he had a dime for every time he heard that…

"So this picnic thing," continued Dean, changing the subject, "is it worth going to?"

Castiel was a little surprised that Dean would question the enjoyment of the Band Picnic, especially since it was something everyone looked forward to. Hadn't Dean been told by anyone else about it?

"Of course, it's something we all look forward to every year," he replied with a nod of his head, "no one told about the great music and food? And the volleyball tournament is legendary, winner gets bragging rights for the rest of the season, it's a very big deal."

Dean sat down beside Castiel.

"It's a big deal then? Well I guess I'll have to be there. Shame I can't bring Sammy, he'd fit right in with all you nerds," he commented, before correcting himself after seeing Castiel flinch slightly, "no disrespect, I've got no problem with nerds. I mean, I'm kind of a nerd myself, with classic rock, and cars, and Star Trek. Although Sammy got me into Star Trek but it still counts."

Castiel smiled, of course Dean wouldn't call him anything degrading, he was too good a person to sink to that level.

"Well, I look forward to seeing you there. Perhaps you could come a bit early and help set up? We might need someone of a stronger build to help with heavy lifting with the tables and DJ equipment, the band parents aren't always reliable," Castiel asked, glancing over at Dean's arms which were quite muscular.

"Oh, um, maybe. Send me a text if you need my help for sure. I'll probably have to cook dinner tonight so I don't think I'll be able to make it any earlier than I have to," Dean responded, and Castiel nodded in understanding.

"That's fine," he said, "you don't have to. If your assistance is necessary, I'll let you know."

Dean flashed Castiel a stunning grin, "thanks Cas, I'll see you later."

He patted his shoulder, and then with a wave he walked away.

Castiel picked up his chalk, binder, and clarinet case (with clarinet inside, of course), and walked off as well, excitement building for the picnic that night.

At about 5:30, Dean felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Opening it, he saw it was a text from Cas.

[From Cas: We need help with set up. Can you come early? I'd really appreciate it.]

Dean glanced over to where his dad was sitting on the couch, drinking as usual.

"Hey dad, I gotta go over early. Think you can handle cooking dinner? I already got it started," he called out, holding up a plate of thawed burgers when John looked over.

"Burgers? No problem at all, I could cook burgers in my sleep. You go ahead and have fun son," John said, pushing himself off of the couch.

Dean waved to his dad, then hollered a goodbye upstairs to Sammy, who grunted in response. When Dean sat down in his car -a '67 Chevy impala inherited from his dad for his 16th birthday last year- and typed out a response to Cas's earlier text.

[To Cas: Sure, be right over. my dad can take over dinner tonight.]

As he started up the car, closing his eyes to appreciate the roar of the engine, his phone buzzed, signaling that Cas had texted back. Dean picked it up and read the message.

[From Cas: Bless your soul, Dean Winchester.]

He chuckled at Cas's message, before pulling out of the driveway and driving off.

When he pulled into the parking lot of the venue where the picnic was held, he saw Cas already standing by the parking lot and waiting, standing perfectly still. It was almost unnatural. Dean parked right in front of where Castiel was standing, snapping him out of whatever daydream he was having. Dean was hoping he might've scared Cas, but Cas just waved and gave him a smile that made Dean's heart beat faster than it should.

"It's good to see you Dean," Cas said after Dean had stepped out of his car, "We need your help in moving the sound equipment, it's much heavier than we expected."

"Well, hopefully I can help lessen the weight," Dean replied, flexing his arms a little bit, before realizing that A. he was wearing his baseball letterman jacket so his arms were hidden and B. the only one standing in his vicinity was Cas. And he totally wasn't trying to show off for Cas, that was just ridiculous.

He cleared his throat, bringing his mind back to Earth.

"Well, there's no time to lose, let's go," Cas said, grabbing Dean's wrist and pulling him along, while Dean tried his hardest to ignore the blush that started creeping across his cheeks.

Cas wasn't exaggerating when he said the equipment was heavier than expected. It didn't take long for Dean to work up a sweat, and he'd already shedded his jacket and flannel button-down, and was about to shed his undershirt as well. After carrying over the DJ's second speaker set, the undershort joined the other articles of clothing on the nearest picnic table.

Suddenly, there was a crash, and Dean turned around to see Cas fall backwards onto another picnic bench on the other side of the small pavilion.

Dean hurried over to him, reaching out his hand to help Cas up.

"Hey, you ok buddy?" he asked.

Cas looked up, and blushed.

"I-I'm sorry, um, I don't, I don't know what came over me," he said, flustered, a he took Dean's hand and let Dean help pull him back up.

"Hey, accidents happen, you must've not seen where you were going," Dean responded, with a reassuring smile.

However instead of looking reassured, Cas's cheeks flushed even darker.

"Right…" he said, trailing off and looking away.

Fortunately they were able to finish setting up without any more incidents, but Castiel's blush remained on his face until Dean put his shirt back on again. This wasn't the first time he had gotten flustered over someone not wearing enough clothing, but it had never caught his attention so much that he would trip over his own feet and stumble into a picnic table. Castiel had never felt so embarrassed in his life- he was not clumsy in the slightest. But Dean didn't seem suspicious of Castiel's behavior, so he would probably forget it had even happened the next day.

After they were all done putting everything where it needed to be, Castiel walked over to the playground and sat down on one of the swings, exhausted. He needed to rest, and get back some energy if he was going to play volleyball. Not that he was expecting to win, Castiel was spectacularly atrocious at volleyball. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try, he had to be there to support the rest of his section at least.

While he was sitting, band students started to arrive. Balthazar was among the first, and when he saw Castiel sitting on the swings, he walked over to join him.

"Evening Cassie, how was set up?" he asked, looking over at his friend.

"Dean took his shirt off and I fell over into a picnic table, but other than that it was fine," Castiel answered.

Balthazar gaped at Castiel for a moment, and then burst into laughter, while Castiel's cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"It's not funny Balthazar," he muttered, but Balthazar kept laughing, now clutching his sides as well.

"No, it's not funny, it's hilarious. I knew you were awkward around people who don't wear clothing, but i never thought you'd be that awkward!" Balthazar choked out once he finally calmed down.

"Whatever," Castiel said, pouting. It wasn't even the fact that Dean was shirtless that tripped him up so much. Well it mostly was, but it was the fact that rather than look away as he usually did, Castiel had found himself staring. He had been completely captivated by his friend, and before he knew it, he had lost his balance. The only other person who had captivated his attention like that was Balthazar, back Castiel had a crush on him.

Oh no.

Oh no.

This did not forbode well.

At around 7:30, the picnic was in full swing. Dean had spent most of the time chatting with Jo, Cas, Benny, and Charlie, as well as playing volleyball. at the moment he was in the middle of playing against the trumpet section in the semifinals, and Dean was currently serving. He tossed the ball up in the air, and spiked it majestically over the net. Off to the side, he heard cas cheering for him, and looked over to wave at him. He momentarily got caught up in looking at the bright expression on Cas's face, he looked so happy. Then the look of joy quickly turned into a look of horror, and Dean heard someone shout "LOOK OUT!"

He turned his head back just in time to get nailed in the forehead with the volleyball.

"Dean! Oh my god! Dean are you ok? I'm so sorry!"

Dean blinked slowly, dazed, as Charlie's face came into focus. He recognized the other faces hovering over him to be Jo, Benny, Cas, and Mr. Turner.

"Hey guys, what're you looking at? Something on my face?" Dean asked, with a lopsided grin.

He saw Jo roll her eyes and heard her say, "my god he's an idiot. He'll be fine," before her face left his view.

"You guys go ahead and continue the volleyball game, I'll look after Dean," said the voice of Cas.

Dean felt his torso being lifted up, cradled in Cas's arms, then his arm was slung over Cas's shoulder, and Cas lifted him to his feet. His mind started to clear a bit as he became vertical.

"Do you think you can walk?" Cas asked him, and Dean nodded slowly.

Cas took a step forward and Dean followed, and then another step, moving forward slowly until they were out of the volleyball court and off to the side, and then Cas sat them back down again, moving Dean's arm back to his side, and leaning him backwards until his upper half was being cradled in Cas's arms again.

"Ok Dean, don't move, you don't seem to have a concussion, but you're still in shock, so you need to lay down," Cas instructed him sternly.

"What are you, a doctor?" Dean asked him, closing his eyes and relaxing into the comfort of Cas's arms. He didn't care how it might have looked at this point, his head was starting to throb and this was really nice and comfortable.

"My mother is actually, she works at the local hospital, and often travels around. She's a miracle worker, she can save someone who's on their death bed. She's taught me a thing or two when she's home," Cas answered calmly.

"That's...really cool, actually," Dean said quietly.

"You think so?" Cas asked, "I'd like to go into medicine when I grow up, I want to be able to help people and save lives like my mother does."

Dean opened his eyes slightly, and his pulse sped up when he saw the look on Cas's face above him.

He was looking off in the distance ahead of him, with a far-off look in his eyes, that couldn't get any bluer than they were at that moment. In short, Cas looked….beautiful.

Then, Dean realized exactly what he was thinking and started to panic. This was a guy he was calling beautiful, and he so did not think of guys as beautiful.

It had to be a result of getting whacked in the head, right? Yeah, that was it.

So, Dean shoved that thought to the back of his subconscious, to join the ever-growing collection of gay-crisis-inducing thoughts.

He closed his eyes again, since all this thinking was making his head worse. His breathing started to slow down, and soon he drifted off to sleep.

Castiel had been staring off into the sunset for a few minutes when he heard soft snoring. He looked down and saw that Dean had fallen asleep.

' _Good,_ ' Castiel thought, ' _sleep will help him heal._ '

Castiel watched him sleep for a while, and found that when he was asleep, Dean was quite...adorable.

Wait. Adorable?

No. Nonononono, this could not be happening.

He could not be falling in love with someone now. Especially not another straight guy.

Castiel had sworn to himself that he would never torment himself like that again. Sure, when he realized he liked Balthazar he was let down easy, but it didn't mean he wasn't heartbroken about it. He'd felt utterly devastated for a month, and it took another two months to be able to feel normal around Balthazar again.

"Stupid demisexuality…" Castiel muttered wearily to himself.

When Dean woke up again, the sky had gotten much darker, although it wasn't completely dark just yet. He was still lying in Cas's arms, and Cas was still looking off in the distance.

"What time is it?" Dean asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

Cas looked down at him smiling softly.

"Oh good, you're awake. Last I checked it was 9:07. How is your head? Does it hurt?" he asked, helping Dean sit up slowly.

"It was hurting before I fell asleep, but it's feeling better now," Dean answered, and then his stomach growled rather loudly, "I'm also hungry, I didn't eat much earlier."

Cas chuckled a little, "yeah, I got hungry earlier, but Balthazar was kind and brought me a burger."

"What a gentleman," Dean commented, grinning.

"Yes, I like to think so, when he's not being a sarcastic twat," Cas joked, rolling his eyes.

"You need better friends," Dean sighed dramatically.

Cas laughed, "yeah, maybe you're right. Well, if your head isn't hurting, and you don't seem to be out of it anymore, so you're probably safe to walk around. Just don't do anything strenuous."

Dean nodded, and stood up slowly, using Cas as a support, and stood still for a moment to see how his head felt. Cas stood up next to him, and looked him over , arms at the ready in case Dean stumbled.

"Well, I feel fine, so I think I'm good," Dean said, smiling at Cas, "thanks, by the way, for looking after me,you didn't have to do that."

Cas looked down, cheeks flushed pink.

"It's fine Dean, I didn't mind. What are friends for?" he replied, with a small smile of his own.

"So, who won the volleyball tournament?" Dean asked, after he and Castiel had gotten some food and were sitting at one of the picnic tables in the pavilion.

"The trumpet section, they narrowly defeated the staff, 22-20, It was an excellent match, I watched it from where we were resting," Castiel replied, before taking a bite from a vanilla cupcake.

"Damn, I thought I was gonna lead the percussion to victory," Dean said, pouting slightly.

Castiel couldn't help but chuckle, Dean looked pretty cute when he pouted.

"Well, you're a junior, right? You'll just have to wait until next year to knock Charlie and the trumpets off their high horse," Castiel said, after he had finished the cupcake.

Dean looked over at him in mild surprise.

"Next year?" he asked.

"Well, yes, you will be doing this again next year, right?" Castiel questioned, looking at Dean skeptically.

Dean looked off into space, deep in thought.

"Yeah…" he said after a few moments, "I can see myself doing this next year."

At around 10 pm, the picnic was essentially over, and everyone was leaving.

Several people had checked with Dean to see if he was ok, which he assured them he was feeling fine.

Cas walked with him to his car, which was nice, even though it really wasn't necessary, but Dean appreciated the gesture.

When they reached the familiar shiny black car, Dean turned around to face Cas.

"Hey man, thanks again for taking care of me after I got hit. It's more than any of my other friends would've done" he said.

"Of course, like I said earlier, what are friends for?" Cas replied, "and anyway, I'm sure you would've done the same for me."

Dean smiled, and pulled Cas into a hug.

Cas froze up for a moment, but soon hugged back. He felt nice and warm, and he smelled like...honey?

"See ya tomorrow Cas," Dean said, after he pulled away.

Cas waved at Dean as he climbed into the Impala, started the engine, and drove off into the night. 

**(Cas realized his feelings! Before Dean did hahaha Dean's so dense! And hugely in denial. Or rather DEANial. *high fives self* ….I'll let myself out.**

 **And they hugged yay! This chapter was a lot of fun to write, I hoped you enjoyed it! Once again, please leave a review, and don't forget to follow the tumblr page if you haven't already! It's at 5 followers now, I'm so happy!**

 **Love you all, see you in chapter 7!)**


	7. Chapter 7

**(to start, FUCK YOU NATHAN FROM SCHOOL!**

 **that was a reference from Welcome to , a hilarious video on youtube that makes fun of the bad writers on this lovely site. I love it so much xD**

 **So here we are, chapter 7! and this story has hit 1,000 views on this site, I'm so happy! It's because of all you guys, my wonderful readers! I love you all so much, keep it up!**

 **So there's some intense stuff that happens in this chapter, and more plot development, yay!**

 **Also, I don;t how many of you might notice, but I've edited out mention of Castiel's glasses. I bring them up like twice, but I don't write about them at all, so there's no point in them existing. It's ok, Cas still has his lovely sweater vest :)**

 **I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, as always, don't forget to review and follow the tumblr page!**

 **I typed most of this chapter listening to Papaoutai, the version by Pentatonix ft Lindsay Stirling.)**

The rest of band camp seemed to zoom by, and soon enough the first day of school approached, as well a the first football game. In the meantime, Dean found that he actually was having fun. Lots of fun.

He originally thought that band people were lame, geeky, awkward people who had nothing better to do. And while he wasn't entirely wrong with the geeky part, he was completely off with his assumption of band people being awkward. In fact, Cas was the most awkward band member he knew, and he wasn't even that awkward, just a little shy. Meanwhile, Charlie was one of the most outgoing people Dean had ever met, and wasn't afraid to talk to anyone, no matter who they were.

Dean had also been dead wrong in his assumption that band would be the death of his social life-in fact, his social life flourished, he had even more friends now than ever before. And while Gordon and Alistair did tease him a bit when he first told them he was in the band, but they didn't stop hanging out with him.

There also was Jo, who Dean saw more often now; Bela who became kind of a frenemy, they started out flirting and then escalated to playing pranks on each other; Balthazar who was a sarcastic asshole, but was also really funny, he had a very dry sense of humor; Charlie who loved video games as much as Dean did, and got him into Game of Thrones, a choice he regretted and loved at the same time; Gilda who was caring and sweet; Garth,one of the drum majors, who was goofy and lanky, but had grown on Dean, and despite his small stature, he had a powerful voice and always kept a steady tempo; Benny, the head snare, who was reliable and kind-hearted; and, of course, Cas, whom Dean had become closest to.

They had started hanging out all the time, and Dean was finding it harder and harder to brush off the increase in his heart rate whenever Cas was around. It didn't help that Cas had a n air of innocence around him, and whenever someone made a reference that Cas didn't understand, he would tilt his head and squint his eyes in confusion, and Dean kept thinking that it was the cutest thing ever. He managed to squash those thoughts by flirting with as many girls as he could. However, the guard girls weren't particularly interested, no thanks to Jo, who Dean could only guess was ruining his chances.

Once school started, though, there would be plenty more fish to choose from.

Castiel was half looking forward to and half dreading the first day of school. He was looking forward to his classes, but he was not looking forward to seeing his tormentors again. Although there was a little bit of hope that since he was now good friends with Dean, maybe they would leave him alone. However, Dean was only friends with Gordon and Alistair. There was also Raphael, Lilith, ad Abaddon. But they were seniors, so Castiel would only have to deal with them for one more year, and then he'd only have 2 bullies to worry about, instead of 5. Not the best case scenario, but every cloud had a silver lining.

Who knew, maybe Raphael, Lilith and Abaddon would be so preoccupied with their final year of high school that they wouldn't even notice Castiel. And maybe Dean could get Castiel on the good side of Gordon and Alistair, and they would leave him alone too. Maybe Castiel could finally go to school and not be attacked verbally or physically, and have a normal school life for once.

Or maybe not.

As the first day of school arrived, Castiel found out fairly quickly that this particular cloud had nothing even close to a silver lining. And first period hadn't even started yet.

"Well, if it isn't the little nerdy gay boy!" sneered Abaddon from behind Castiel as he walked down the hallway. He did his best to ignore her, and focus on finding his first class, As usual, it didn't work.

"What, are you deaf now too?" she asked mockingly, "as if you weren't enought of a freak to begin with!"

Castiel clenched his fists, trying his best to stay composed.

' _Just a few more feet,_ ' he told himself, ' _and then you'll get to first period. She'll go away the moment she sees a teacher, and I'll be sa-_ '

His thoughts were interrupted by a hard shove from behind, knocking him on the ground and sending his schedule flying out of his hand. Several people nearby laughed, but the loudest was Abaddon, cackling like a witch.

Thankfully, the bell rang, and everyone rushed off to get to their classes before the second bell rang. Castiel pushed himself back up, and looked around for his schedule. Fortunately, it hadn't landed far from him, and he was able to reach over and grab it fairly easily. He stood up gently, massaging his wrists which had taken most of the fall and were now sore, and hurried to find his first class.

It didn't take long, the classroom was just around the next corner. Castiel apologized to the teacher for being late, saying he got lost. The teacher simply nodded and told Castiel to sit anywhere as there wasn't a seating chart yet. Castiel scanned the room for a familiar face, smiling when he spotted Balthazar sitting near the side in the back. After Castiel placed his stuff down and sat down in the empty desk next to Balthazar, who leaned over and said quietly,

"Last I checked, you don't get lost, Cassie. Why were you really late?"

Of course, Balthazar would easily be able to see right through Castiel's excuse, he knew him so well.

"Abaddon," he replied, "she started verbally harassing me in the hallways, and then shoved me over. Don't worry, I'm alright."

Balthazar scowled, "the first day of school has barely started, and you're already being targeted? What is their deal anyways?"

"Just forget it Balthazar, it's not like I can do anything about it. As long as I just brush it off, they'll get bored and leave me alone," Castiel said, but Balthazar rolled his eyes.

"Cassie, that's been your defense strategy for 7 years, and it hasn't worked. You need to tell a teacher!" he hissed.

Castiel glared back at him.

"You know as well as I do what happened last time I told a teacher. I'd rather not get shoved down a stairwell again. I still can't believe I didn't break anything," he argued.

"I still can't believe you didn't report that to the principle," Balthazar snapped back, "look, I know you think you can handle this on your own, and you're admirably strong for having put up with all this harassment for so long, but I'm worried about you Cassie, one of these days you could really get hurt."

Castiel felt a pang of guilt. Balthazar had just been trying to look out for him.

"I'm sorry to worry you Balthazar, if it starts to get out of hand, I promise I'll report it. Will that quell your worries?" he asked.

Balthazar sighed, "not really, but I guess it's better than nothing."

Dean was already bored out of his mind in history, and they hadn't even started to learn anything yet.

He felt a pencil poke his back.

"Psst! Dean!" whispered a familiar voice.

Dean turned around to face Gordon, who had his usual sly grin on his face.

"Hey man, what's up?" Dean whispered back.

"You never introduced us to your pal, Cas," Gordon said, "I thought were all gonna hang out together."

"Well he said he already knew you and Alistair, so I figured you didn't need to be introduced. But hey, today's Tuesday, and me and Cas have band today. If you don't mind sticking around for a little bit, I could formally introduce you," Dean said, shrugging.

Gordon grinned, "I don't mind at all. Want me to get Alistair?"

Dean shook his head, " I think it'd be better if it was one at a time. Cas gets weird whenever I mention you and Alistair, so I don't want to overwhelm the poor guy."

"That's fine," Gordon replied, "one of us is enough. I look forward to it."

Dean turned back around, grinning.

Cas was gonna love this.

The day went by fairly quickly for Castiel, and before he knew it, it was time for band. Castiel always looked forward to the end of the day, when band rehearsal took place. It was his favorite class, because he was good at it, and because he had friends in that class. People in band accepted him for who he was, and that always made Castiel's day better, no matter how much he was tormented and pushed around in his other classes.

Castiel was also lucky to not only have Pre-calculus with Balthazar, but he had Honors Language Arts with Charlie, Latin 2 with Dean, and History with Anna. Unfortunately, he had lunch with Gordon, Lilith and Raphael. However, Castiel usually ate lunch in a different part of the cafeteria, or outside, so he managed to avoid them. It wouldn't last too long though, they would eventually find out where he was sitting.

He was almost at the band room when someone came up behind him and taped his shoulder. Castiel froze and cautiously turned around, but instantly relaxed when he saw that it was Dean standing behind him.

"Hey stranger," he said, with a lopsided grin in his face.

Castiel's heart beat started to increase, and his day instantly became even better than when he had last seen Dean in Latin 3rd period.

"Hello Dean," Castiel said, smiling affectionately.

"So, I've got a surprise for you," Dean said, his face full of excitement.

"Really?" Castiel asked, curiosity piqued, "what kind of surprise?"

"Well if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Dean remarked, his grin even wider, "just meet up with me after class, before the after school practice starts."

Castiel nodded, "I will."

"When are we gonna get a water break? I'm hot and tired!" whined the most annoying voice Castiel had come to know.

"It's been 15 minutes Marv, we're not going to get a water break after 15 minutes," Castiel responded.

Marv crossed his arms in a huff, "I told you, call me Metatron. It's way cooler than Marv."

Castiel rolled his eyes for the 20th time since class had started. How was this guy a highschool freshman? He acted like he was 7! And what kind of name was Metatron anyway? It was not even close to sounding 'cool'. Marv was unfortunately in Castiel's line so he had to deal with the brat's constant complaints, while never listening to any kind of criticism or suggestion. Which wouldn't have been a huge deal if he actually _knew how to march in step or cover down_.

In fact, Mr. Turner was on the brink of pulling Marv off the field and putting him in auxilliary percussion, students who couldn't march in step hurt the band at competition. However, any time Mr. Turner brought it up, Marv threw a huge hissy fit and his mother complained. Marv was a spoiled brat with an obnoxious 'holier-than-thou' attitude. Castiel would never harm anyone no matter how deserving of it they may be, but oh how he wanted to backhand slap Marv across the face!

Eventually the bell rang, which shut Marv up for a while, after whining, "well it's about time!"

Although, Castiel kind of agreed with Marv's last statement, he'd been curious to see what kind of surprise Dean had for him.

His imagination got a little out of control, and he kept picturing scenarios of Dean kissing him senseless, saying that he loved him, and then it went straight to the gutter from there. His crush on Dean was starting to get out of control, and he needed to stop with his fantasies if he wanted to get over Dean. However, Castiel knew already that getting over him would be extremely difficult. So for now, he would just have to subdue his unrequited feelings, and never let Dean find out.

Bringing his thoughts back down to Earth, he looked around for Dean. He saw him standing by the bushes, and when Castiel got closer he saw that Dean was talking to someone. Dean glanced over and noticed Castiel, turning to him with a big smile that Castiel's heart into a flurry of butterflies, and made him feel warm and fuzzy.

"Cas! Hey there's someone I'd like you to formally meet. You said you already knew him, but I want to officially introduce you two," he said, and gestured to the person behind the bushes to move closer, "Cas this is Gordon, Gordon this is Cas."

The warm fuzzy feeling that had filled Castiel from Dean's cheerful smile quickly turned to ice when Gordon stepped out from behind the bushes.

This was the worst surprise ever.

"So, you're the Cas Dean's been talking about nonstop," Gordon said politely, "in fact, if Dean hadn't clarified that you were a guy, I would've thought for sure you were his girlfriend."

Girlfriend?! Did Gordon really think that?

Dean felt himself blushing, and looked away from Gordon. He glanced over at Cas, and his embarrassment was replaced with concern. It was hard to tell what Cas was feeling, but right now he looked absolutely terrified.

"Cas?" he asked, taking a step forwards, "you ok buddy?"

Cas looked over at Dean, and his face relaxed a bit.

"My apologies," he replied, "I didn't think that you were going to introduce someone, I was simply caught off guard. It's nice to formally meet you Gordon."

Cas walked over to stand in front of Gordon, and held out his hand for Gordon to shake.

Gordon hesitated for a moment, but accepted Cas's handshake.

A smile stretched across Dean's face, and he walked over to pat both Cas and Gordon on the shoulder.

"Awesome!" he said, "well, I'm gonna go grab a snack, you guys get to know each other!"

And he walked away towards the school, leaving his two good friends to chat.

The moment Dean was out of earshot, Gordon let go of Cas's hand with a look of disgust, and grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him forward.

"Listen up, faggot," Gordon hissed, and Castiel flinched, "just 'cause Dean thinks you're 'cool', doesn't mean that you're not still a freak and a loser, you know that right?"

Castiel nodded, frozen with fear.

So much for Gordon and Alistair leaving him alone.

But Gordon wasn't done.

"You know this 'friendship' won't last anyways. Once Dean realizes how much of a freaky fag you are, he's not gonna want anything more to do with you, you know that, don't you?"

Again, Castiel nodded, although he kept telling himself that Gordon was wrong.

"It'd be best if you just stop hanging around him. Better to distance yourself now, before he catches your freak disease."

Gordon let go of Castiel forcefully, knocking him over to the ground, and then stalked away.

He was still sitting on the ground when Dean came back, carrying a bag of doritos.

"Cas? What're you doing sitting down? And where's Gordon?" Dean asked, leaning down in front of him, "you ok man? You look kinda pale."

"I'm fine," Castiel answered automatically, "Gordon had to leave."

Dean shrugged, "if you say so. How'd it go with Gordon?"

Castiel looked up into Dean's eyes. He looked so hopeful.

"It went alright, I think," Castiel said, and Dean's face lit up even more.

"Great! I'm really glad to hear that!" he said excitedly, then sat down next to Castiel, opening the bag of doritos, and holding them out to him, "want some?"

Castiel nodded, and reached into the bag to grab some chips.

Gordon's words came back to him as he brought the first chip to his mouth.

' _Once Dean realizes how much of a freaky fag you are..._ '

Castiel needed to tell Dean about his sexuality. He needed to make sure Gordon and Alistair didn't tell Dean any false information before Castiel could explain the truth. Castiel wasn't in the closet, but Dean didn't know him as well as others he most likely didn't know.

"Dean," Castiel began, "I need to tell you something, and I need you to understand what it means."

Dean turned to look at him, confused.

"Cas, what're you trying to say?"

Castiel took a deep breath before continuing, "I don't feel sexual attraction to just anyone, regardless of gender, like most people do. I'm not gay, I'm not straight, I'm demisexual. I only feel attraction to someone that I;m very close to."

He looked over to Dean when he finished speaking, hoping for some sort of response, but Dean was just looking at him, and munching on some chips.

Once Dean had finished chewing, he spoke up.

"So you don't feel any kind of desires towards strangers?" he asked, and Castiel shook his head.

"Not even people I'm acquainted with," he added.

"Huh," Dean said, "so how did you figure this out?"

"Well, it was back in middle school, everyone started dating each other, but I had no interest in anyone. Then, when I became good friends with Balthazar in 8th grade, I started feeling an attraction towards him," Castiel explained.

"Balthazar? Really? So do you still like him?" Dean questioned.

Castiel shook his head, "no, he's straight. I eventually got over my feelings towards him, although it took a long time.

Dean nodded slowly in understanding, "I see. So why did you suddenly decide to come out?"

Castiel chuckled, "I've been out for years now, ask anyone in band. I figured since you're still fairly new to the group and we've only known each other for about a month, you must not have known yet. Hence why I'm now telling you. As for why, well, some people don't pay attention to proper terminology, and since I've only had a crush on a guy, I've often been mislabeled."

"What, people call you gay?"

"Precisely. So, don't what you hear be your source of knowledge. You probably know how ridiculous rumors can be," Castiel said, and then noticed people walking back to the parking lot, "we should head back out to basics block, it looks like rehearsal is about to start."

Dean nodded, and they got up and started heading back onto the parking lot.

"Hey Cas," Dean called out, and Castiel turned back to look at him, "just wanted you to know, I accept you for who you are. Thanks for telling me."

And just like that, Castiel fell for Dean even harder.

 **(Woo! another chapter done! Some intense plot stuff, and i included Metatron! As the bratty little shit that he is. God, I HATE HIM SO MUCH. My band has actually had to pull people from the field that are unable to march in step, because not marching in step knocks off a lot of points at competition, it's a big deal.**

 **Also, Cas told Dean about his demisexuality! And Dean is ok with it! Now I noticed that I never blatantly wrote about Dean saying he was straight, but I guess the fact that he flirted with Bela and the guard girls pretty much gave it away to everyone. No explanation needed XD**

 **Ugh, Gordon, what a dick! I hated writing those insults, my poor baby Cas ;-;**

 **Next chapter, you gys are in for a real treat! It'll be from Sam's POV! With Sammy having girl trouble, and Dean and Cas bicker like a married couple, I had a lot of fun writing it!**

 **Till next time, I love you all! Don't forget to review!)**


	8. Chapter 8

**(Woohoo! Chapter 8 I can't believe it! This one is a good one, from little Sammy's point of view :D featuring the other pairing, Sam/Meg. My friend, sammysmissingshoe got me into it. This chapter is dedicated to you girl, cuz you my bestie and you wrote me a oneshot that hinted at destiel, which is awesome considering you don't ship it! Love you, 10% homo 3)**

Sam sighed as he walked into the entrance of his middle school. It was the second week of school, but all his classes were still reviewing. He was a little envious of Dean, despite his brother's complaints about getting piled over with homework, at least he was actually learning something. Fortunately, Sam had brought his mythology book today to read while his teachers went over the previous night's homework (which had been a cakewalk for Sam).

When he got to the classroom, he saw the main reason he looked forward to being bored out of his mind with review: Meg Masters.

With her bob of bleach blonde hair, and her dark eyes, she was the most gorgeous girl Sam had ever met. The only issue was her personality, but while at first seemed super stuck up, Sam noticed she had a sweet side that showed up on occasion. And before he knew it he was crushing, hard. He just wished she would be consistent in the way she acted towards him. At one moment, she would be flirting with him, playing with his hair, or playing footsie under the desk they shared, but then the moment he tried to reciprocate, she suddenly turned cold towards him.

Sam was so confused. He remembered when Dean had taught him how to 'pick up' girls. He tried every tactic he'd learned, but nothing worked. And it was driving Sam insane!

"Oh, hey Samsquatch," Meg said, uninterested, when Sam sat down at his desk.

"Good morning Meg," he replied cheerfully, looking over at her. She half-glared back at him, and Sam couldn't help but notice how attractive she looked with her eyebrows knitted together.

"Is there something on my face?" Meg asked, annoyed.

"Uh, n-no, sorry," Sam stuttered, blushing and looking away. He hadn't realized he had been staring. She was just so….captivating.

When Dean came to pick Sam up from school that afternoon, the first thing Sam noticed was that the usually vacant front seat was not vacant. In fact it was occupied by someone whom Sam had never seen before. He opened the backseat door and climbed in, taking off his backpack and placing it in the seat next to him.

"Heya Sammy, there's someone I want you to meet," Dean said, turning around to face him, and patting the stranger on the shoulder, "this is my friend Castiel, he's in the band and he's just as brainy as you are. C'mon Cas, Sammy doesn't bite."

Castiel, or Cas, turned around to look at Sam, who waved politely.

"Hello Sammy," he began, and Sam corrected him.

"It's Sam."

Cas nodded, "my apologies, Sam, Dean's told me a lot about you."

Sam grinned, "likewise, Dean never shuts up about you."

Dean glared at Sam, and Sam rolled his eyes.

"Well you don't," he said, snarkily.

Dean's glare intensified.

"Anyway," Dean said, sounding annoyed, "Cas is gonna hang out at our house for a while, so try not to be the annoying little brother that you are, ok?

Sam snorted, "I'll try, but on one condition."

Dean raised his eyebrows, "and that is?"

Sam shuffled his feet, suddenly nervous.

"I...I need girl advice."

Dean's face split into a mischievous grin.

"Oh really? Who's the girl in question?"

Sam looked out the window.

"Look, I'll tell you when we get home, you're blocking traffic," he said, looking back at Dean.

"Alright alright," Dean said, turning back the face the front and pulling out of the pickup lane to drive home.

They had barely walked through the front door when Dean resumed the interrogation.

"So, who is this girl that has my baby brother all smitten?"

Sam sighed, and sat down on the couch.

"Her name is Meg Masters and she sits next to me in math and language arts. She's really cute, with short blonde hair, and dark brown eyes, they're almost black," he explained, "the thing is, I can't tell if she likes me back or not! One minute she's into me and acting all flirty, but the moment I try to flirt back, she becomes the ice queen towards me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

Dean nodded thoughtfully, and Cas looked off in the distance, seemingly also in thought.

"Did you use the tricks I taught you?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded, "yeah, but they didn't work. She just looked at me weirdly, the turned away and wouldn't talk to me for a while."

"Did you try poetry?" Cas suggested.

Dean shot him a look.

"Dude, who the hell writes _poetry_ anymore?" He asked incredulously.

Cas shrugged, "Gilda won Charlie over with poetry. For a while there was a small love triangle with Gilda, Charlie, and Dorothy from the volleyball team."

"Dorothy's gay? That would explain why she never responded to my flirting," Dean said.

"You're getting off topic!" Sam exclaimed.

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a twist," Dean remarked, "look, don't try poetry, that stupid and old fashioned. Find something you both like, and talk about it. Really get to know her."

Sam blinked. Since when did Dean ever take the time to get to know a girl?

Cas cut in, "I think poetry is perfectly romantic and a wonderful way to get your feelings across, and you should at least try it."

"Ok fine, you can try it," Dean said, "but when it inevitably fails, go with my advice."

Woah, woah, woah, woah.

Dean was just accepting someone's idea, without a fight?

If there was one thing that ran in the Winchester family besides bottling up feelings, it was hard-headed stubbornness, and Dean was the worst. He never accepted any suggestion over his own without a fight, not even with the girls he dated or his closest friends. But now he just lets Cas's suggestion go?

' _Who are you and what have you done to my brother?_ ' Sam thought, giving Dean a disbelieving look.

It became clear to Sam as the afternoon went on: his brother and Cas were undeniably in love with each other.

Now, Sam had had a hunch that Dean wasn't completely straight. He'd seen his brother check out a guy on more than one occasion. And now, with the way Dean acted around Cas? Well, Sam's hunch was completely proven to be true.

The way they looked at each other when the other person wasn't looking. When they did catch each other's gaze, they would just stare and stare at each other. Plus, they stood way closer together than normal friends did.

Sam had bore witness to this almost-PDA for about 3 hours, and his main thought the whole time had been: ' _oh my god would you two freaking KISS ALREADY?_ '

Sam loved his brother, he really did, but Dean was a total idiot sometimes.

That night, while Dean and Cas were still downstairs, Sam was finishing up his homework. When he was done, he pulled out a piece of loose-leaf paper and began working on a poem, like Cas had suggested.

After about 10 minutes of staring down at the blank piece of paper, not knowing what the hell he should even write, he started to freak out a little. So he went downstairs to ask for some help.

Sam was halfway down the staircase when the front door opened, and John walked in.

"Hey dad," Sam said, after his dad closed the door behind him, "how was work?"

John smiled when he saw Sam, "tiring, but worth it, we had a lot of customers today, which means a lot of income."

"Cool," Sam replied, smiling back.

"Dad! You're home!" called out Dean, who walked over to them, Cas following behind, "Cas is here, hope that's ok."

John nodded, "it's fine, any friend of either of my boys is welcome here anytime."

"Thank you Mr. Winchester," Cas said, smiling shyly.

Sam glanced over at Dean, and him looking at Cas, and...blushing? Seriously? For being a 'no-chick-flick-moments' guy, Dean sure looked like he belonged in a chick flick.

"Hey, Dean?" Sam called out, and Dean turned his attention to him.

"What is it Sammy?" he asked.

"I need your help again, with what we talked about earlier," Sam replied, looking down to hide his embarrassment.

"What're you boys talking about?" His dad asked.

"Nothing!" Sam said quickly, while Dean grinned.

"Sammy's in loooove~" he cooed, and Sam shot him a death glare at his brother's betrayal.

John raised his eyebrows.

"Is he now? I guess he's finally becoming a man," his dad said, chuckling.

"Daaad!" Sam whined, "you guys all suck! Forget it, I'm going back upstairs."

He was about to turn around when Cas called out to him.

"Sammy, I'll help you," he said, then glanced at Dean, "and I won't tease you either."

Sam smiled with relief, and decided he liked Cas. Dean's other friend would've only joined in with Dean's teasing.

"It's, Sam, but thanks Cas. You should definitely come over more often, you're much nicer than my brother," he remarked.

"Hey!" Dean complained, "I'm right here!"

"Well, I'm gonna go make dinner, what would you boys like?" John said, patting Dean on the shoulder as he started to walk to the kitchen.

Dean recommended cheeseburgers. Sam asked for salad. Cas shyly requested a PB&J sandwich.

John suggested they just order a pizza, and everyone agreed on that.

When his dad walked away to call the pizza place, Sam walked over to Cas.

"So you'll help me?" he asked, hopeful.

Cas smiled, "of course."

Dean snorted, "Cas, you're my best friend, but you can't give girl advice."

Cas looked at Dean, confused.

"Why not?"

"Because you've never been with a girl! The closest you got was Balthazar, and while he acts like a girl sometimes, he is not a girl," Dean said.

Cas looked away, cheeks flushed.

"Look, I don't care who it is, just someone help me!" Sam pleaded, unable to take any more bickering. Dean and Cas were acting like a married couple, and while it normally be hilarious, Sam was kind of desperate for help right now.

Dean cleared his throat.

"Right, so you need help writing your sappy love poem? Well, I'm no Edgar Allen Poe, but I did alright in Language Arts during the poetry unit. So, to begin with, what do you like most about this girl?"

"Where do I begin?" Sam said, with a dreamy sigh, "her face looks so pretty when she's annoyed and yelling at me, and I Iove her laugh when she's tripped me or stolen my books, and- what? What's so funny?"

Dean had started snorting, trying not to laugh, but failing miserably.

"Dude. You are such a masochist," he giggled.

"What? I am not!" Sam said defensively.

"Yeah, you are."

"Shut up! You're supposed to be helping me!" Sam complained, his hands balling into fists.

"Fine, fine, you love it when she makes you her bitch, what else?" Dean said, waving his hand nonchalantly.

"Ugh, you're such a jerk!" Sam exclaimed.

"Dean, I don't understand how this is helping," Cas cut in.

"I'm just messing with him Cas, it's fine." Dean replied, still chuckling a little.

"I think he's had enough, I'll take over from here," Cas said.

Dean and Cas stared each other down for a solid 30 seconds, before Dean looked away, running his fingers through his hair with a sigh.

"Fine, go ahead."

Sam gaped at Dean. Twice? He'd backed down twice? Holy crap, his brother had it bad.

"Just forget it, I'm gonna go ask Kevin. He knows a lot about Shakespeare, so he should be able to help. You guys go back to...whatever you were doing," Sam said, and walked out of the room and back upstairs, smiling to himself at how pink Dean's face had gotten, as if Sam had been implying they were doing something inappropriate.

His brother seriously needed to get his mind out of the gutter.

 **(Another chapter done! Yay! To sammysmissingshoe, I love you girl, I hope you enjoyed this chapter most of all! Thanks for dealing with my non-stop rambling about destiel xD**

 **The next chapter is gonna be another long one, some serious stuff goes DOWN. HUGE plot development. And poor Cas, the shit he's gonna go through! You guys are gonna be excited, then you're gonna hate me, then you're gonna get a little excited again.**

 **Also, updates are gonna become less frequent, because school is starting for me this week. This chapter took a while because I was at my own band camp! In fact the picnic was just a few days ago, and I couldn't help but remember chapter 6 with a smile :)**

 **So unfortunately, next chapter might be up in a week, might be up in a month, I really can't say. It's in my profile that I don't update regularly anyway, so it's really nothing new. Sorry, I have kind of a busy life!**

 **In the meantime, don't forget to leave a review of you liked this chapter, my reviews are a big part in motivation to write more! Also be sure to follow the tumblr page, the url is marchingbanddestiel!**

 **I love you all, until the next chapter!)**


	9. Chapter 9

**(this chapter is dedicated to the ever amazing Misha Collins! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU ANGELIC UNICORN! And congrats on winning choice TV chemistry with Jensen! Maybe the writers will see this as a sign and make destiel canon next season? One can only hope...**

 **Coincidentally, when I saw it was Misha's birthday, I happened to be wearing my Castiel dress! And then my section got first in my band's very first critique! It was a pretty good day, despite me almost fainting while flossing my teeth that morning xD**

 **Hope you enjoy this chapter, the ending is cute so you're not allowed to hate me THAT much.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review, do it for Misha!)**

The next Sunday evening, Dean burst into Sam's room excitedly. Sam, who had been doing his homework, let out an annoyed huff and turned around in his chair.

"With all the times you bug me to knock before entering your room Dean, you really need to practice what you preach," Sam said, and crossed his arms irritatedly.

Dean rolled his eyes, "unimportant Sammy, you can be annoyed later. What's important right now is that I got two tickets for the drive-in this Friday, they're showing Casino Royale. The original."

"Sorry Dean, I'm going over to Kevin's for a sleepover, we're working on a school project together this weekend," Sam said, with a frown.

Dean sighed, "damn, that leaves an extra ticket. Dad can't go cuz he's working late, so you were my last hope. It's never fun to go to a movie alone, especially not a drive-in movie."

"Why don't you ask Cas? I'm sure he'd love to go out with you," Sam asked, turning around to hide his mischievous grin. This could not be a better turn of events! It had to be fate.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," Dean replied thoughtfully.

Sam turned back to glance at Dean, and saw a prominent blush on his brother's face. Perfect.

"You're welcome, jerk."

Dean scowled.

"Bitch."

The next day, Dean approached Cas in Latin, when they had partnered up to do a translation about Odysseus and his third wife or something.

"Hey Cas," Dean started, feeling oddly nervous. Stupid Sam, why'd he have to say it like that?

' _I'm sure he'd_ _love_ _to go out with you._ '

This wasn't going to be a date or anything! He saw movies with his friends all the time! And he was only asking Cas because Sam wasn't able to come. Not a date.

"Yes Dean?" Cas answered, looking up from his paper.

"Um, are you doing anything this Friday? There's a drive-in showing 007:Casino Royale, and I got two tickets. I was gonna go with Sammy, but he's got other plans, so I figured I'd ask you instead. Since friends see movies together," Dean said, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt.

"Sure, I would love to. I've never seen the 007 movies, although I've heard they're great, so it sounds like fun," Cas replied.

Dean gaped at him.

"You've never seen 007? Ok, you're coming with me to see this movie even if I have to drag you."

Cas laughed, "Dean I already accepted your offer, I'd love to go with you."

Dean blinked a couple times, feeling like an idiot.

"Oh. Really? Uh, awesome. Yeah. Awesome," he stuttered out.

Dammit, why couldn't he stop acting like a 13 year old girl with a crush! This was his best friend, not some cute chick!

Well, Cas was pretty cute.

Ok, so not helping.

"So what time will you pick me up?" Cas asked, catching Dean's attention.

"Oh! Right, I'll uh, I'll come around 7:45," Dean replied.

"I look forward to it," Cas said, smiling. And with a... blush on his face? No, it couldn't be. It must have been the lighting, or Dean was just seeing things.

"Yeah, uh, me too."

Castiel headed out to lunch feeling happier than he had felt in a long time. He could still hardly believe Dean had practically asked him out on a date. Well, they were only going to see a movie, but that could count as a date, right? Dean may not think so, but Castiel allowed himself this one little fantasy.

Then, a dreadfully familiar voice cut a hole straight through Castiel's happy daydream after he stepped outside with his lunch.

"Well if it isn't our favorite nerd!"

Castiel's hands clammed up as the sinister drawl of Alistair called out to him. He turned around to look at Alistair, and saw that he wasn't alone, the whole gang was with him today: Gordon, Raphael, Lilith and Abaddon.

"What do you want?" Castiel asked, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to not look frightened. Thankfully, for once his voice didn't quaver.

It was Lilith who answered, her voice taking its usual tone of mocking.

"Just wanted to know what it was like to be a _freak_." she sneered, before joining the rest of the group as they all laughed cruelly. Castiel tried not to wince as the insult hit him.

 _Freak. Loser. Fag. Outcast. Nerd._ No matter how many times Castiel tried to brush them off, each insult always stung, like a small knife in his back.

"I'm not a freak," he said, voice going monotone, as it usually did when they harassed him.

' _Don't show emotion. Show any sign that they got to you, and you lose. Pretend it doesn't hurt. Pretend you aren't affected. Sooner or later, they'll get bored and leave,_ ' Castiel thought to himself.

But they just kept going.

"Yeah right, loser. Still never had a girlfriend, right? Or should I say boyfriend, since you're a little faggot who likes it up the ass," Gordon spat.

Raphael joined in, "wonder what his daddy would think if he knew. Oh wait, your daddy is gone, isn't he?"

"Shut up," Castiel said suddenly, glaring at them with a new intensity in his eyes.

Alistair's evil smirk just grew even bigger.

"Oh, look, he finally bites back. Did we strike a nerve?" he taunted.

But Castiel had had enough at this point. It didn't matter that they insulted him, but insulting his family? That was unacceptable.

"I said, _shut up_ ," Castiel repeated, and took a few steps closer to the group.

Alistair only laughed, "why don't you make me? Teach me a lesson for your deadbeat dad."

And with that, Castiel snapped, surging forward with rage boiling up inside him, but Alistair was much stronger. Castiel shoved Alistair, but he barely budged, and responded with a fist to Castiel's jaw, sending him reeling.

Castiel should've realized at this point that this was a very bad idea, and fled for his safety-courage be damned\- but he didn't. Adrenaline and sheer stupidity led him to throw a punch of his own, only for it to be blocked by Gordon, who then punched Castiel in the gut. Castiel keeled over, falling to his knees, which Raphael, Gordon, and Alistair took as an invitation to let him have it.

Dean was on his way to study hall when he saw a small crowd gathered outside. Was there a fight going on or something? He then caught a glimpse of the back of Alistair's head and groaned.

' _Dammit Alistair, can't you go one day without pissing someone off and starting a fight?_ ' Dean though as he hurried outside to try and break it up. There was only a few students standing around the fight, so Dean only had to crane his neck a bit to get a clear view. What he saw make his blood run cold and his eyes widened in shock and astonishment.

Alistair and Gordon, along with Raphael, as well as Lilith and Abaddon cheering them on, were beating up a student who wore a dark blue sweater vest that was too familiar.

Castiel was kneeling on the ground in the middle, receiving blow after blow, not even trying to fight back.

Dean shoved his way to the front, and managed to step in front of Cas and block Gordon's next hit.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Dean spat, giving Gordon a deadly glare.

Gordon only rolled his eyes.

"Little bitch was asking for it."

Dean growled in rage, and punched Gordon in the face, sending him staggering backwards.

Next was Alistair, who hardly had any time to react before Dean punched him square in the gut, and then reeling to glare at Raphael, who stepped back, hands up defensively.

Dean looked at all of them, furious. He couldn't believe that not even five minutes ago, he considered these scumbags his friends.

"Is this what you do in your free time? Beat up innocent people?" he snarled.

"Told you," Gordon said, holding his face where Dean had hit him, "bitch was asking for it."

"HOW? How the HELL did he ask for it? What did Castiel, one of the nicest guys I know, EVER do to deserve ANY of this?! TELL ME!" Dean yelled.

"He's just some faggot outcast, who doesn't even have any friends. He'd probably beat himself up if he could, we're just helping him out by doing it for him," Alistair replied coldly.

For a moment, Dean saw nothing but red. It took every ounce of willpower not to strangle Alistair to death right there.

He'd have to settle with a broken nose.

Dean rushed towards Alistair, fist raised, when Cas called out to him.

"Dean…." he said, voice weak and trembling, and sounding completely broken.

Dean froze, then turned and rushed over to where Cas was now lying on the ground. His nose was bleeding, he had a nasty black eye, there were several cuts and bruises on his face, and from the way Cas clutched his chest, Dean guessed he had a few broken ribs too.

"Cas, hey buddy, are you ok?" he asked frantically.

Cas opened his mouth to speak, but only coughed, blood splattering the ground below him.

' _Shit,_ ' Dean thought, ' _this is_ _not_ _good, he needs medical attention._ '

"Hey, Cas, I'm gonna take you to the nurse, ok?" Dean told Cas, cradling his head so he was looking him in the eyes. Even now those bright blue eyes still made Dean's breath catch, and heart skip a beat.

Cas gave him a weak smile, which made Dean's heart break a little, and made him even angrier to think that anyone would even think about hurting someone as kind and selfless as Cas.

"Thank you Dean," Cas mumbled, before his eyes closed and he passed out.

After having a short panic attack ('Oh fuck is he dead? Ok he's still breathing thank god'), Dean slipped his arms around Cas and lifted him up holding him bridal style.

He turned around to give one last look at his so-called "friends".

"Just so you know, he does have friends. I'm one of them. And if you touch him again, so help me I will knock you to next week. Is that clear?"

Without waiting for a response, Dean turned back, and walked off toward the school.

The first thing that came to Dean's mind as he carried Cas away was ' _I'm going to KILL Gordon and Alistair_ '. The second thought was ' _geez, Cas is heavier than he looks._ '

He brought Cas to the office, and walked over to the front desk, where the school secretary, Mrs. Rachel DeAngelo, was busy on the phone. When she turned her attention over to Dean, and the unconscious Cas in his arms, she gasped.

"Hi," Dean said, attempting to smile, although it came out more of a grimace, "is Nurse Moseley in? My friend got beat up by some bullies."

Mrs. DeAngelo's eyes widened even further.

"Who were the bullies responsible?" she asked, "I'll report them right away to Principal Shurley."

"Gordon Walker, Alistair Daemon, Raphael Archer, Lilith Goodwin, and Abaddon Knightly," Dean answered, almost growling. He couldn't believe his friends would do something like this. Well, ex-friends, there was no way Dean would hang around such jackasses anymore. And he used to think they were cool!

Mrs. DeAngelo nodded, and jotted the names down on a piece of paper.

"So in the meantime, I need somewhere for my friend to rest up. Did you say Nurse Moseley was in or no?" Dean asked, putting on his best 'polite' face.

"Yes, of course, she's in, go right ahead," Mrs. DeAngelo said nodding again, and gestured towards the door to the nurse's office, "the door is right there."

"Thank you," Dean said with a charming smile, and carried Cas over to the door. His hands were full, so rather than knocking, he did the next best thing, and kicked the door a few times.

The door opened and Nurse Moseley looked at Dean, then at Cas.

"Oh dear. I had hoped I wouldn't need to see Castiel here again," she tutted, shaking her head.

Dean's eyes widened, and he looked up at the nurse in shock.

"Wait, this has happened before?" he asked, incredulously.

Nurse Moseley sighed, "last year he came in with several bruises, someone had pushed him down the staircase."

Dean flashes back to the previous year, hearing Gordon gripe about "accidentally" stumbling into someone and "accidentally" knocking them over on top of the stairs, and it causing a big ruckus.

"I think I know who was behind that," Dean said in a hostile tone.

"You must be Castiel's friend, bringing him over here," Nurse Moseley said, stepping aside to let Dean into the clinic.

"Yeah," he answered, "we're both in the marching band. Well, I just joined this year, and he was the first friend I made in the band."

"Well it's good that he has friends to look out for him. Last year it was a charming young man with a british accent, although Castiel was at least still conscious then," Nurse Moseley commented.

Dean felt a sudden pang of guilt.

If only he had gotten to the fight sooner, Cas wouldn't have been so badly beaten up.

"How about you lie Castiel down on this bed over here, and go on back to class, ok...what is your name?" the nurse asked Dean.

"Dean Winchester" he replied, "and actually I'm at study hall, so it's not like I'm missing anything. Could I stay with Cas? Please?"

Nurse Moseley gave him a look, and sighed.

"Well, if you insist," she said, smiling.

Dean's face lit up with relief.

"Thank you!" he said.

He could stay with Cas. He could keep him safe this time.

At first, all Castiel felt was pain. Agonizing pain. He tried to cry out, but he couldn't move. Then he felt something else. Warmth. Someone was holding him in their arms. It was comforting. He was lying down somewhere, and someone was….singing. Mother? No, it was a man's voice, and he didn't recognize the song.

Castiel slowly opened his eyes.

It took a moment for his eyes to focus on his surroundings, but when they did, he saw that he was in the nurse's clinic. How did he get here?

Last thing Castiel remembered was being curled up on the ground while his tormentors surrounded him, landing blow after merciless blow. Then, Dean had stepped in, and had stood up against Gordon and Alistair, who had been his friends, to save Castiel. Then Dean was leaning over him, and after that everything had gone dark.

Castiel looked around some more, hoping to find Nurse Moseley and ask how he got here, and his eyes landed on Dean, who was sitting in a chair next to the cot Castiel was laying on, and was singing softly.

"...Dean?" Castiel said, his voice rough.

Dean immediately stopped singing and jumped over to Castiel's side.

"Cas! Thank god you're ok!" he exclaimed, with a worried look on his face.

Castiel tried to sit up, and winced when a sharp pain shot through his chest.

"Hey, woah," Dean chided, "take it easy. You're seriously hurt, so don't strain yourself."

"Did you bring me here?" Castiel asked, propping himself up on his elbows.

Dean rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Uh, yeah, I mean, you were unconscious, I wasn't gonna just leave you there," he said.

"Thank you," Castiel replied, "for everything. You didn't have to stand up for me."

"What?" Dean cried out, a hint of anger in his voice, "of course I did! You could've died for all I know! And why didn't you tell me my friends were picking on you? Why did you lie to me? Sure, they were my friends, but I thought we were friends too, Cas! How long have they been messing with you? Tell me the truth, Cas, please."

Castiel looked away in shame.

"I didn't want to bother you with my personal problems. I can take care of myself."

Dean scoffed, "oh yeah, getting beaten to a pulp proves what a great job you're doing."

"I'm sorry," Castiel said quietly.

Dean placed his hands on Castiel's face, and turned his head so Castiel was looking at him.

"You have nothing to apologize for. It's not your fault you got picked on. The ones at fault are Gordon, and Alistair, and whoever the fuck else thinks they can hurt you and get away with it," he said, all harshness in his voice gone.

Dean was doing his hardest not to go hunt down Gordon and Alistair and give them a round 2, but right now he knew Cas needed him.

"I'm asking you again Cas, how long have they been picking on you?" he questioned.

Cas tried to turn away, but Dean kept his hands on Cas's cheeks. Finally, Cas gave in.

"Since...since middle school…" Cas began, and his eyes began to water.

A tear slipped down his face, followed by another, and then Cas's body started to shake with sobs as he spilled everything that he had gone through.

Dean moved his hands from Cas's face to wrap them around his shoulders, pulling Cas into a gentle embrace as he just listened.

And as he was listening to what Cas was saying, Dean suddenly remembered occasionally seeing some of the kids Alistair and Gordon would torment. And those kids all had the same messy dark hair and striking blue eyes.

Holy shit, it wasn't several different people, it was all Cas. His so called 'friends' had been messing with the same person for all of highschool, and according to Cas, even earlier than that.

It made his blood start to boil again. How could do something like this?! How could they hurt someone so important to him?

Someone he cared about, someone he-

And at that moment, Dean Winchester was slapped with an imaginary brick of realization.

He was in love with Castiel.

Oh, he was so screwed.

 **(I told you you guys would hate me. So, when I started typing this, it was Misha's birthday. Then today, as I finished it I heard what happened to our precious angel, and I was so upset, it made me even more determined to finish this and post it for you guys. This chapter is double dedicated to him, he didn't deserve what he went through. Shout out to Misha, proof that angels do exist, you're such an amazing person, and I hope the thugs that hurt you get locked away for life!**

 **If you liked this chapter, please leave a review, and give the tumblr page a follow, I put up fanart of the guard flags, and another message for Misha. the url is marchingbanddestiel dot tumblr dot com. I'll be posting another spoiler whiteboard soon with a little snippet from chapter 10 :)**

 **Also, I noticed I'm almost at 50 reviews! So the 50th review gets something special from me, I haven't decided what it will be yet though! So if you review you could get lucky!**

 **Once again, we love you Misha, you're too good for this world! 3**

 **See you all next chapter!)**


	10. Chapter 10

**(I'm back! School and band have kept me so busy, however I took a sick day so that gave me some time to type. In the meantime, I'm now at 62 reviews! Holy crap you guys are amazing, I love you all so much! I'm feeling confident that this story could reach 100 reviews someday, maybe even before it's finished! Be sure to check out the tumblr page as well, I drew Gilda playing the flute in the band uniform recently and I posted it. I also got my band photos a little while ago, and if you guys want, I'll post it on the page so you can see what I look like irl.**

 **Let me know in a review, and enjoy the chapter! It's a good one, you guys get to learn a bit more about Cas's brothers, and Dean seeks justice for Cas, while at the same time avoiding his inevitable sexualiy crisis.**

 **I also have a beta now! Thank you for offering your services to me, TheKrystalCat, you're awesome :D)**

After Cas had calmed down, Nurse Moseley asked Dean if he was going to return to class at anytime.

As much as he wanted to stay, Dean didn't want to get in trouble for skipping, so he asked Nurse Moseley for a note to his next class.

Dean gave Cas one more hug, and reassured him that he wouldn't let those scumbags get away with what they did.

And he meant it. If Cas was too scared to report them, Dean would do it instead. He was a witness to one major account, and he had heard about all the other accounts of harassment Cas had gone through from Cas himself.

Although, a big part of Dean's determination to bring justice was so that he wouldn't be able to think about the huge gay panic he was having.

It was major. He was in love with his best friend, and that best friend was male.

' _Don't think about it,_ ' Dean thought to himself, ' _focus on Cas's problems. He's more important right now,_ '

He walked back over to the front desk, where Mrs. DeAngelo was now typing on her computer. When she finished, she looked over at Dean.

"Do you need a pass?" she asked.

"I'm good, I got one from the nurse. I was actually wondering if I could see Principal Shurley? Turns out the fight today wasn't the only incident, I'd like to report multiple other accounts of bullying from the same students I told you about earlier," Dean replied.

Mrs. DeAngelo nodded, "I see. Well, unfortunately Mr. Shurley is in a meeting, but if you could record it on a note, I can deliver it to him myself as soon as he's available."

She handed Dean a pad of paper and a pen.

"Sure, that'll work," Dean said, accepting the two items.

He sat down in one of the waiting chairs, and wrote down everything Cas had told him.

When he was finished he gave the paper and pen back to Mrs. DeAngelo, and then walked out of the office to head to class.

On his way, he overheard Marv, a freshman that Cas would often complain about, speaking.

"Did you hear? Castiel got the snot beaten out of him! One of our big, important leaders couldn't even handle himself in a fight! Some show of leadership, huh? Maybe they should pick someone to take his place, someone like me. I was born to be a leader, I would do way better than he could. Most importantly, I wouldn't let anyone push me around."

Word had spread already? This was ridiculous, why couldn't people give Cas a freaking break?

Dean clenched his fists, and stormed over to where Marv was standing, gossiping to all his little friends. He reached over and grabbed Marv by the collar, pulling him up so they were nose to nose, and Marv was dangling about an inch above the ground. Marv gulped, his air of cockiness vanishing.

"Alright Marv, listen up you little brat," Dean hissed.

"It's not- my name is-" Marv stammered.

"I couldn't care less about anything that's coming out of your mouth. What I care about is that you're bad mouthing my best friend, who first of all, is an officer and section leader and deserves your highest level of respect, and second, has gone through enough shit today and doesn't need any more problems to deal with," Dean snarled at him, "So shut your sleazy little mouth, or so help me I will report you to Mr. Turner along with the principal. And I don't think your mommy can talk you out of any consequence for verbal harassment of another student. Do I make myself clear?"

Marv nodded quickly, looking very intimidated. About time he was knocked off his self-built pedestal.

"Good."

Dean let go of Marv, letting him drop to the ground, and walked away. Cas would thank him later.

Cas did not thank him later. In fact, Cas was very pissed when Dean told him about reporting the bullies and his confrontation with Marv.

"How could you Dean!" Cas cried out.

"What do you mean, 'how could I'? I was trying to help you, Cas!" Dean argued.

He was back in the nurse's office, during his lunch a few periods later. He'd thought he would visit Cas, tell him the good news, and then they could celebrate. Apparently, he'd thought wrong.

"You shouldn't have threatened Marv, you're just sinking to the same level as Gordon. He threatened me to stay away from you, after you had us formally 'introduced'," Cas said, adding air quotes.

"Which wouldn't have happened if you had told me the truth about how you knew them beforehand, I could've protected you!" Dean exclaimed.

"It's not your job to protect me!" Cas spat back.

"Well maybe I want to protect you! Because I care about you!" Dean blurted out, feeling extremely frustrated. Why couldn't Cas be happy about this? He was trying to help!

Cas froze at Dean's words, looking at him with wide, sad eyes.

"You care about me?" he asked.

Shit. That sounded way less gay in Dean's head.

"Well, yeah, of course. You've become my best friend, Cas, of course I care about you. And it's driving me insane to see you getting hurt like you did," Dean answered, heat rising to his face.

Dammit, he needed to stop blushing, he wasn't some preteen girl with a crush!

Well, the crush part was true, but he wasn't a preteen girl. Which didn't help much with preserving his internal masculinity.

"Well, you're my best friend too Dean," Cas continued, "and it's going to drive me insane to see you get harassed for telling the principal."

Dean stared at Cas in disbelief. That's why he was angry?

"Cas, buddy, you don't need to worry about that. I can take a hit and I know how to defend myself, and I can easily squash any bad rumors, I'll be fine," Dean said, placing his hands on Cas's shoulders to reassure him, "don't worry about me, worry about yourself."

"But-" Cas tried to argue, but Dean cut him off.

"I'll be fine Cas, they can't hurt me," Dean repeated, "look, lunch is gonna be over soon. Do you want me to let Mr. Turner know that you're not gonna be at band today?"

Cas shook his head, "I can go, I feel fine. It's really not that bad."

He tried to sit up straight, but flinched and clutched his chest. Dean held on tighter to Cas's shoulder to help support him.

"Not that bad my ass," Dean said, "just stay here and rest, I'll explain what happened to Mr. Turner."

Cas sighed, but no longer tried to argue.

Dean gave him a gentle hug, careful not to put any pressure on his injuries.

"I'll see you later, rest up and recover quickly, ok?" he said, giving Cas a lopsided grin, which Cas returned in full.

"I promise I will."

After Dean left to go back to class, Nurse Moseley insisted that Castiel call home and let his mother know what happened.

Castiel pulled out his cell, and dialed his house phone number. It rang a few times before it was picked up, however, the voice that spoke through the line was not his mother's voice, but the voice of his eldest brother, Michael. Castiel had forgotten that Michael had come home to visit for a few days.

"Hello?" Michael said.

"Hello Michael," Castiel answered.

"Castiel? Why are you calling?" there was a pause before Michael continued, "Is everything alright? You sound like you've been through hell."

"It's nothing, I'm fine," Castiel said quickly, starting to panic. How could he tell?

"No you're not. I recognize that tone of voice, last time you sounded like this you had just been pushed down a stairwell. What happened?" Michael said, voice full of concern.

Castiel sighed deeply, "Alright, I'll tell you. Some guys beat me up a little, but it's not that bad. Can we please talk about something el-"

"WHAT?" Michael interrupted, and Castiel had to bring the phone away for a moment to save his poor eardrums.

"Don't worry about it Michael, I said it's not that bad," Castiel tried to argue, but the call suddenly went dead.

Which meant that Michael had, for sure, hung up to tell his mother, as well as Lucifer and Gabriel about what Castiel had just told him.

About 7 minutes later, Castiel's phone started ringing, and sure enough, the caller ID read 'Gabriel'.

With another heavy sigh, Castiel answered the call.

"Alright Cassie, I just got a text from Michael saying you got beat up today? Who's organs do I need to rip out? Just give me names and it will be done," said Gabriel's angry voice on the other end of the line.

"Gabriel!" Castiel said, exasperated. "It's not that bad! Besides, Dean already took care of it."

"No, Castiel, nobody messes with my baby bro- Dean? Who's Dean?" Gabriel asked, sounding confused.

Castiel shifted nervously.

"He's my….friend," he answered.

"Friend, like, friend-friend, or friend like, friend-that-has-caught-your-romantic-interest-friend?" Gabriel pressed.

Castiel was baffled, how could his brothers tell so much just by how he spoke?

"The latter," Castiel replied, somewhat reluctantly, "although he's straight, like Balthazar, so it's not like anything is going to happen between us."

Gabriel sucked in a breath, "Ouch, that sucks Cassie. Are straight guys just your type or something?"

"I don't know, and I'd prefer not to discuss it over the phone."

"Ok, well, what did you mean when you said 'Dean took care of it'?"

"He fought back against the people that were attacking me and then reported them all to the principle. It was kind of noble that he stood for me, since the attackers were his friends," Castiel said. He may have still been a little angry at Dean's actions and that he hadn't consulted Castiel about it first, but he had still stood up for him and saved him, and Castiel was also in love with Dean, so he couldn't really stay mad at him forever.

"Let me get this straight, your friend, that you have unrequited romantic feelings for, is _friends_ with the douchebags that beat you up?" Gabriel asked, suspicion in his voice. "Sorry Castiel, but that's sending up red flags over here."

"In his defense, Gabriel, Dean didn't know that they had been harassing me for years," Castiel argued calmly.

"Wait, years? Did you say years?" Gabriel questioned incredulously.

Castiel inwardly scolded himself for not keeping his stupid mouth shut.

"Are these the same jerks who picked on you since middle school, and then pushed you down the stairs after you tried to report them?"

"...yes…." Castiel admitted reluctantly.

"And you didn't try to report them again?"

"Gee, Gabriel, they pushed me down a stairwell for trying. What was I supposed to do? I thought they would kill me if I tried again! Anyway, as I said, Dean reported them, so they're sure to be apprehended."

"And you trust Dean?"

"Of course I trust Dean, he's one of my closest friends, and he saved my life," Castiel snapped, getting tired of Gabriel's insistent mistrust of Dean.

"Life? You said it wasn't that bad."

Oh crap.

"I, uh," Castiel struggled to explain.

"How bad is it? Don't lie to me Castiel."

Castiel was quiet for a moment, before caving in, and answered with, "Several serious bruises, a black eye, my lip is split, possibly a few broken ribs, and I was unconscious for about half an hour.

He heard Gabriel take a deep breath over a line, and knew that his brother was trying not to lose his temper.

"That settles it then. I'm getting Mike and Luci, those fuckers are dead. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, messes with my baby brother and lives to tell about it," Gabriel hissed.

"Gabriel, calm down. I appreciate your concern, but I don't want you to get in trouble for my sake. If you didn't know already, manslaughter is highly illegal, and you'd most definitely be sent to jail," Castiel said, "no matter how justified it may be."

Gabriel grumbled something that Castiel couldn't make out.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"I promise I won't get caught Cassie, those dicks deserve their 'just desserts'," he said.

"Gabriel, please. I don't want anyone else to get involved. Just let it go, would you? For my sake," Castiel pleaded. He just wanted this whole mess to blow over and be forgotten so his life could get back to normal.

"Ok, ok, I'll it be. But in the future, if anyone starts trouble with you, you let me know. What kind of brother would I be if my little bro is getting picked on under my nose? I'll see you later Cassie."

And then Gabriel hung up with a click.

Castiel looked down at his phone and sighed. He loved his family, but they were always either too much or too little. It was hard to deal with, when sometimes everyone was home and he was coddled and guarded over, or he was alone and God was the only one he could talk to because everyone else was too busy. But they were his family, and the only family he had, other than Anna. And he wasn't all that close with her, since her parents, Uncle Zachariah and Aunt Naomi, did nothing to hide their disgust with Castiel after he came out as Demisexual.

Nurse Moseley popped her head out of her office to tell Castiel that his mother had called, and she was on her way to pick him up. She suggested that he get some more rest in the meantime, so his body could start healing some more.

Castiel nodded, exhaustion starting to take over. He had been through a lot in only one afternoon. He closed his eyes and slipped into a light slumber.

 **(WOO! Ten chapters done, as well as 10 seasons of the show done! It'd be cool if this fic could be a show, I'd obsess over it in a second. So, Castiel has protective big brothers! And an lgbt+ phobic aunt and uncle! Don't worry though, Anna is accepting of Cas, even though I don't have it written. I'll probably mention it later on in the story.**

 **Sick days can be productive, even though typing this took all day cuz I was working on this as well as a personal essay for my Advanced Composition class. I'm terrible at writing essays, so that was hard. Hopefully I get a fairly good grade for it! Enough about school though, let's not make me die from stress, ugh.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, hope it made you laugh, hope it squeezed your heart, hope it made you possibly swoon or something. Please leave me a review, and please go check out the tumblr page! Hope you all have a lovely evening, till I see you again in chapter 11!)**


	11. Chapter 11

**(Hey! I'm back! Apologies for taking a while, handwriting chapter 12 took me forever, and I couldn't type 11 until 12 was finished. But here it is, finally!**

 **Important announcement: it has come to my attention that people from my school and marching band have been reading this story. I just wanted to say that it makes me so happy to hear that you all have been reading this and that you all like it so much! Shout out to all you guys :D if you see me at school, let me know how you feel about this chapter, don't be shy! I'll probably hug you for reading it in the first place, I'm seriously so ecstatic about this.**

 **Well, I'm not going to keep you people waiting any longer, so without further ado, I present chapter 11! Enjoy you wonderful muffins! And don't forget to leave a review!)**

Dean was facing some huge inner turmoil.

Since Cas wasn't at band, Dean didn't really have anyone to talk to. So now he had nothing to distract him from his own thoughts.

Although, he supposed, of all the places to have a huge gay panic, the parking lot during band practice wasn't the worst.

Well, here went nothing.

First of all, how? Dean had lived his entire life being only attracted to girls! Well, except that one nice-looking guy in his health class. And that handsome Marine recruiter that came to the school a few times his sophomore year. And-ok, so maybe he wasn't as straight as a ruler.

But, he liked girls! With soft skin, and curves, and pink lips, and, well, girl parts! He wasn't gay. Maybe this whole crush thing was just because Dean hadn't had a girlfriend in a while. When was the last time he'd gotten laid? His hand could only do so much, a man had his needs…

"Dean."

But, there were the dreams. Cas kept appearing in his dreams. Those kinds of dreams. Now that he thought about it, how hadn't he noticed his attraction to Cas earlier? Sure, Dean wasn't super smart like Sam, but he wasn't an idiot. If he liked someone, he knew about it. No confusing thoughts, nothing. And once he knew he liked someone, he sure as hell didn't hesitate to act on it.

"Dean."

But now, now there was Cas, with his stupid face, and his stupid dark brown hair, and his stupid blue eyes, and his stupid sweater vest. Cas, who came and just flipped everything in Dean's life upside down, and made him question everything he knew about himself.

"Dean!"

Benny's voice cut into Dean's thoughts, and snapped him back to reality.

"What?" he asked, looking at the head snare player.

"Class is ending, Mr. Turner dismissed us.," Benny said, "you alright? You've been out of it all rehearsal."

Dean's face heated up slightly.

"Sorry, just have a lot on my mind."

"Girl troubles or something?" Benny asked, as they started walking off the parking lot, heading towards the school entrance.

"You could say that," Dean sighed, "I just recently discovered that I like someone, and now I'm really confused about a lot of things."

He brought his water bottle up to mouth and took a drink.

Benny nodded slowly, "I see. So you finally realized your feelings for Castiel?"

Dean choked on his water, blushing a dark shade of red as he had a coughing fit.

"W-What?" he said, once he was able to breathe again, "what gave you that idea?"

Benny shook his head and chuckled, "you kidding? Drumline's been taking bets on how long it would take for you two to get together."

Great. Dean was having a sexuality crisis, and his own freaking section was taking bets on it. Just _fantastic_.

"You're taking bets on my love-life? Real classy Benny," Dean said, embarrassment replaced with irritation, "and is it really that obvious?"

"Well, sort-of, but you just confirmed it, brother," Benny replied with a sly grin.

Dean hit his forehead with his water bottle in frustration.

"Goddammit…" he groaned.

"So you're crushin' on Castiel, that's no big deal. If I played for the other team, I'd probably have a thing for him too. He has a good-lookin' face, I'll admit," Benny continued, opening the door to the school and they approached it.

Dean glared at him.

"You're not helping."

"Well, for this kind of situation, I'm not sure how I can help, I'm afraid. If you need help with gay stuff, talk to Charlie or Gilda-"

"I'm not gay," Dean interrupted, "I like girls! I've always liked girls. Sure there've been a couple guys that I thought looked pretty hot, but that doesn't make me gay!"

Benny looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You've never heard of liking more than one gender?" he asked.

Dean stared back him.

"It's possible to like more than one gender?" he questioned, dumbfounded.

Benny reached over and patted Dean's shoulder sympathetically.

"You're lucky you're good looking."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean said, even more irritated.

But, Benny was already walking away.

"Talk to Charlie!" he called over his shoulder, before going through the doors of the band room, leaving Dean standing there, at a loss for words.

Dean did not talk to Charlie. Once he'd gotten home (after picking up Sam and making sure Cas got home without any trouble), he'd gone upstairs and gotten on the internet. Trusty internet, he could always count on it to find the answers he needed.

He typed 'attracted to girls and boys' into google and hit 'search'.

The first result that popped up was a link to Yahoo answers page titled: 'Girl attracted to boys and girls! Bisexual?'

The other results were about boys liking girls and vice versa, or why girls liked 'bad boys', or 'why do ugly boys get gorgeous girls' and other completely useless bullshit.

He scrolled back up to the top of the results page, and tried searching the word 'bisexual' that he had seen from the top result.

The first result that popped up for this search was a Wikipedia article about Bisexuality. Dean clicked on the link, and started to read.

 _Bisexuality is romantic, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior towards both males and females, or romantic or sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender; this latter aspect is sometimes pansexuality._

 _The term bisexuality is mainly used in the context of human attraction to denote romantic or sexual feelings toward both men and women, and the concept is one of the three main…_

Dean topped reading, and slumped back in his chair. So it was really was possible to be attracted to both guys and girls? But, even if Dean had found guys attractive, he'd never acted on that attraction. Would that still count as bisexual, or not? He sat back up in his chair, and continued to read the article, hoping to find some more answers.

 _...three main classifications of sexual orientation along with heterosexuality and homosexuality, are each parts of the heterosexual-homosexual continuum. A bisexual identity does not necessarily equate to equal sexual attraction to both sexes; commonly people who have a distinct but not exclusive sexual preference for one sex over the other also identify themselves as bisexual._

Dean read the last sentence over again, and ran his fingers absentmindedly through his hair. He felt oddly relieved, as if he'd finally discovered a missing puzzle piece or something. Well, he supposed finding out he was bisexual was kind of a big puzzle piece.

It all made sense now.

His attraction to girls, but also finding guys attractive, his crush on Dr. Sexy from Dr. Sexy M.D. (it was a guilty pleasure, ok?).

His feelings for Cas.

Dean leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling of his room. He stayed there for a while, reveling in his new sense of identity.

Then, he started to worry.

What would Sam think? Oh god, what would his dad think? John wasn't a narrow-minded bible-thumping conservative, he wasn't exactly the most open minded person either.

Dean had grown up as the perfect son. While Sam and his dad had often argued about Sam's future (Sam wanted to be a lawyer, while John wanted Sam to carry on the family business of being a mechanic), Dean was always the one to step in before things got out of hand. When his dad drank himself to sleep on nights where his grief over Dean's mother was just too much, Dean was the one who cleaned up the empty bottles, pulled a blanket over him, and left a glass of water and painkillers in a convenient place the next morning. Dean kept good grades in school and joined the band to get those extracurricular credits because his dad wanted him to get his high school diploma, even though Dean couldn't have cared less about his education since he-unlike Sam- was planning on going into the family business. What would John think if he knew his son liked girls AND guys?

And Sam, who had looked up to Dean his entire life. Would Sam still idolize his 'amazing big brother' if he knew? Sam was always the accepting type of person, but...

Dean was too scared to know the answer.

Then there was Cas. Even though Dean had come to terms that his crush on his best friend was real, Cas was demisexual. He needed to become close to someone before he would feel any attraction to them, and while they were good friends, Cas wasn't as close to Dean as he was to Balthazar. So, no chance of Cas returning his feelings.

Being a well-liked and fairly popular guy, Dean had never experienced unrequited love before. This was the kind of thing that happened in chick-flicks, or Dr. Sexy M.D., or something.

Of course, now that he had a crush on Cas, seeing a drive-in movie with him was going to be super awkward.

Shit, with Cas's condition, would he even still want to see the movie?

Dean pulled out his phone and sent a text to Cas.

[to Cas: I hope I don't sound insensitive when I ask this, but are you still gonna come see the movie Friday? It's ok if you just want to stay home, I understand.]

Ok, that sounded decently polite and not like something a dickbag would send. Good.

Not much time passed at all before his phone buzzed with a response. Dean was so surprised that his phone fumbled in his hands and fell through his fingers, clattering on the floor. Dean quickly picked it up, checking for any damage to the screen, before looking at the responding text with a sense of excitement that he now noticed very clearly.

Getting excited over a text? Shit, he had it _bad_.

[from Cas: No, you don't sound insensitive at all. I will still be going with you to the movie, I wouldn't miss it for the world :) ]

Dean couldn't help it. He snorted and started laughing. Cas had included an emoji. A dorky little smiley face.

"oh my god Cas, why are you so damn cute…" he mumbled, holding his head in his hands.

The next day in history, Gordon stormed into the classroom, looking pissed as hell.

"I'm gonna get that tattling little bitch of it's the last thing I do," he hissed, loud enough for Dean to hear.

Dean turned around in his seat, successfully keeping himself very calm-although his fist were tightly clenched.

"S'cuse me? Did you say something?" he asked, sarcasm turned to the max.

"Your little faggot friend is gonna pay for reporting me and Alistair for all the stuff we did not actually do. Freak's making it all up to make himself look like the victim," Gordon said, and Dean did nothing to hide his glare.

"Joke's on you asshole, _I_ was the one who reported you two. And Raphael, and Lilith, and Abaddon. What you did to Cas is not cool, and there's no way in hell I'm gonna let you get away with it," Dean replied.

The look of shock and utter betrayal on Gordon's face almost made Dean's day. Almost.

"Why are you defending that nobody? Do you like him or something?" Gordon asked, then snorted as if he had told the funniest joke ever. That laughter died quickly as Dean avoided eye contact and didn't say anything, his face a prominent shade of pink.

"Holy shit, you do, don't you? You're a faggot just like him, aren't you?" Gordon laughed again, "oh just wait until everyone hears about this-"

He was cut off as Dean grabbed his collar and pulled him down against the desk.

"You so much as think about opening your big fat mouth and the whole school is gonna know about your wet dream with Sonic the Hedgehog," Dean threatened. Cas may not be happy about it, but people like Gordon only responded to threats that could potentially ruin his reputation. ANd after being friends with him and Alistair for so long, Dean had their darkest secrets to hold over as the perfect blackmail.

Gordon visibly paled.

"You wouldn't," he practically whimpered.

Dean smirked, "oh I would. If the school is gonna know about the relationship between me and Cas, it'll be because of what I say, and nobody else. Understood?"

Gordon nodded, and Dean let go of his collar, turning back around.

He refused to acknowledge Gordon's existence for the rest of the period.

Days passed, and soon it was the fated Friday. Castiel had stayed home for the entire week, recovering from his injuries. The rest and relaxation had helped a lot with his recovery. So did the painkillers and medication his mother had prescribed him. She truly was a miracle healer, and even though his bones would take weeks to heal, Castiel felt much better already. His split lip and bruises were healing nicely as well.

Castiel also enjoyed being able to spend time with his brothers, who had all come home to visit him. And during church on Wednesday, so many people had given kind prayers for his recovery.

Castiel had never felt so lucky.

His mother and brothers offered him excellent advice about his situation with Dean, too, the next afternoon.

"I fully support you Castiel, Dean is a lovely young man, who is nothing but polite and charming. I do hope he reciprocates your feelings," his mother told him.

Castiel told her glumly that Dean was straight, so it would never work out between them.

"Wait, I think I remember this kid. He had light brown hair that was spiked up at the front right?" Gabriel commented, and Castiel nodded, "He was in my lunch last year, I remember seeing girls fawn over him all the time. But he's definitely not completely straight, I saw him blatantly check out a Marine recruiter's ass one time. You've got a chance Castiel, I say you go for it."

"Personally, someone who is willing to fight his own friends to protect you must see you in more than a platonic light," Michael added.

"With your looks, brother, you could turn any straight man gay," Lucifer commented.

Castiel could not hide his smile, he had a wonderful family.

"Well, I'm going to see a movie with him tomorrow evening…" he said quietly.

His mother gasped and clapped her hands together.

"A date! How wonderful!" she exclaimed.

Castiel blushed and looked down at his feet.

"It's not a date, it's just friends seeing a movie together," he corrected.

Gabriel rolled his eyes, and Lucifer muttered, "well it sounds like a date to me."

"Date or not," Castiel's mother continued, "you should at least wear something nice."

Which was why Castiel now found himself rooting through his closet, looking for something to wear.

"No, no, no…" he mumbled to himself as he looked at shirt after shirt, not being able to decide on anything.

Castiel eventually settled on a plain white button down shirt, and black suit pants. He also decided to wear his favorite blue tie, which his mother always said brought out the color of his eyes. The weather forecast had said the temperature would be chilly for the evening, so Castiel completed his outfit with his tan trenchcoat, another article of clothing that he held dear.

He laid his clothes on his bed, then went into the bathroom to take a shower. It may not have been a date, Castiel still wanted to smell nice. He contemplated trying to fix his hair, but thought better of it. Besides, Dean had a habit of ruffling Castiel's hair (which felt very enjoyable he might add), so even if he combed it down, it would only get messed up again.

Castiel glanced at his alarm clock, and saw that it read 7:38. He had 7 minutes left before Dean would be there to pick him up.

He quickly got dressed, and the hurried downstairs.

Michael was sitting in the chair next to the staircase, reading a book. He looked up as Castiel all but leaped down the stairs.

"I thought you said this wasn't a date," Michael said, his eyebrows raised slightly a he looked over Castiel's choice of attire.

Castiel looked down, twiddling his thumbs.

"It's not, but mother said yesterday that there's nothing wrong with looking nice for a friend," he replied.

Castiel checked himself in the mirror, frowning when he saw his tie was crooked. He tried to fix it, however his efforts only made the situation worse, and his tie ended up completely backwards.

"Here, let me," Michael said, setting his book down and walking over to where Castiel was standing.

He reached out to adjust the tie, when the doorbell rang.

Castiel rushed over to the door and opened it, tie forgotten.

There stood Dean, wearing his usual outfit-plaid flannel shirt with a black undershirt and jeans. Although this time he was also wearing a brown leather coat, which looked very good on him.

"Hey Cas," Dean said, as his eyes looked Castiel up and down, "you look like you just came from a business meeting."

Castiel smiled, shuffling his feet.

"I just felt like looking nice. I don't go out with friends very often," he replied.

"Gee Cas, you're all dolled up for me? I'm flattered," Dean joked, placing his hand over his heart and batting his eyelashes, "so how are you feeling? Your injuries a lot better."

"I feel a lot better, resting this week helped a lot."

Relief showed clearly on Dean's face.

"Thank god I got there when I did," he continued, "you could've ended up way worse, with how they were beating on you. I was seriously scared, man."

"Well, you saved me, and that's what matters. Now, we should get going to that movie before we're late," Castiel replied.

"Right," Dean said, "movie. Let's go."

Michael watched Castiel close the door behind him as he left for his 'not-date' with Dean Winchester.

Dean Winchester, who had clearly checked out his little brother not once, but twice. And then had looked so relieved when he saw how much better Castiel looked and felt.

The signs were obvious. Castiel didn't need to worry about how Dean saw him. Because clearly Dean already returned his feelings.

Which was why it didn't matter that Castiel's tie was still backwards.

 **(Woo! SO glad that's done! I have to admit, this was one of my favorite chapters. Oh, and for Dean's research, I actually googled what he googled, so it would be accurate. The Wikipedia article actually exists, and I took the info word for word. Credit goes to Wikipedia, I don't own it or anything from that article. I'd source it, but this is fiction so I don't know how that would work.**

 **Yay, more Novak bros, and Dean deals with Gordon! Don't worry, Alistair and Gordon won't be dealing with Cas and Dean anymore :) mainly because I'm too lazy to write about them anymore, and I have other major plot points to get onto paper that are more important.**

 **Other important news: I'm at 84 reviews! I can't believe I've gotten so many already, you guys are literally the BEST! I'd love to do something special for whoever gets me to 100, but I don't know what to do. I'm not very good at doing requests, because my inspiration comes at random from anywhere, and it usually floats around this story. I'll probably dedicate a chapter to them or something, idk.**

 **Anywho, don't forget to leave a review, I am only 16 away from 100! If you know me irl, and you leave a review, please identify yourself!  
**

 **See you all next chapter!)**


	12. Chapter 12

**(Whoops, didn't mean to go a month without updating, my bad! I think this chapter is worth the wait though, it's one of my personal favorites so far. This is where it starts to get really gay, and the UST is gonna start rising and rising. You're gonna love and hate it at the same time.**

 **Exciting news: I'M AT 98 REVIEWS! Thank you so much reviewers, you have no idea how much I appreciate all the kind things you've said about this story, I feel so honored to receive your praise!**

 **Other exciting news: I'm using this story as my project for my Creative Writing class! I shared part of this chapter to my class, and get a lot of nice comments. Some of my classmates even said they wanted to read the whole story. So, shout to those people! Let me know what you think of it next time you see me :D**

 **Now, without further ado, the long awaited chapter 12!)**

It was a good thing Dean had already seen Casino Royale before, because he was having difficulty keeping his eyes on the screen.

Cas had worn a tie. A freaking tie. Which not only looked a little ridiculous because it was on backwards, but the royal blue color just-so-happened to make Cas's baby blue eyes pop. On top of that, Dean would never be able to look at a tan trenchcoat again without picturing Cas wearing it with his nice shirt and crooked blue tie.

He looked like a young tax accountant. A freaking adorable tax accountant, with messy dark brown hair that made him look like he'd either just gotten out of bed or just had…..nevermind.

' _Ok, not a good idea to think about Cas and sex at the same time,_ ' Dean mentally scolded himself.

A funny scene in the movie caused Cas to start laughing, and Dean couldn't help but think it was the cutest thing ever, from the crow's feet that crinkled around his eyes to those stupid dimples in his cheeks.

' _Dammit, it should be illegal to be that cute!_ ' Dean thought.

"What?" Cas questioned, looking at Dean in surprise.

Dean's face heated up with embarrassment.

Oh shit, did he say that out loud?

"Uh, sorry, I was just remembering this, uh, this, guinea pig!" Dean lied, rattling off the first thing that came into his mind.

"You have a guinea pig?" Cas asked, face lighting up with excitement, "where?"

"Not a real one, it was, um, a photo that, uh, that Sam showed me," Dean 'explained' further.

"Oh," Cas said, looking dejected.

Dean chuckled, "sorry to disappoint."

Cas turned back to resume watching the movie, and so did Dean, trying his hardest to pay attention to the screen.

However, his brain had other plans, and decided instead that he would think about how being here with Cas, just the two of them, at a drive-in movie, _alone_ , felt like a date.

He kept thinking about how easy it would be to pretend to stretch, and drape his arm across Cas's shoulders. How easy it would be to just reach over and grab onto Cas's hand. How easy it would be to lean across the Impala's seat and kiss him.

' _Shut up, just shut up!_ ' Dean told himself, running his fingers through his hair to calm himself down.

Cas didn't see Dean that way, and doing something as stupid as making a move on him would only ruin the friendship they had.

Castiel was enjoying the film, but it was hard to stay focused on what was happening onscreen when Dean was sitting so close to him.

' _This is not a date, this is_ _not_ _a date,_ ' Castiel reminded himself. As much as he wanted it to be, oh how he wanted it to be!

Dean was straight, he would never see Castiel that way.

Even though he was close enough that their thighs were touching. Even though Dean's hand was lying there, looking so inviting.

' _He's straight, he's straight, he's_ _straight_ _,_ ' Castiel thought.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dean shift.

He glanced away from the screen and saw Dean run his hand through his hair, looking troubled.

Castiel opened his mouth to speak, but was momentarily distracted by an overwhelming wish that is was his own fingers running through Dean's light brown hair.

Fortunately, it only took a few second for Castiel to remember what he was going to say.

"Is everything alright? You look troubled."

Dean looked over at Castiel, and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. I just, uh, have a lot on my mind," he explained, "things I want that I can't have."

Castiel nodded, "I understand how you feel."

Lord, did he ever understand. Especially when what he wanted most was right in front of him, yet still out of reach.

"It's nothing important, just forget about it," Dean said, returning his attention to the movie.

Castiel followed suit and the two didn't say much else for the rest of the film.

When the movie ended, and the credits started rolling, Dean turned to face Cas.

"So, what did you think?" he asked, excitement building as he awaited Cas's critique.

"It was good, although the ending was a bit...unexpected,"Cas replied, "but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as a whole."

"Perfect," Dean said, "because now that you've seen this one, you have to see all the others."

"How many other films are there?" Cas questioned, looking skeptical.

"That's not important. What's important is that you need to see them," Dean declared with a grin, "when's your curfew?"

"I don't believe my mother gave me one," Cas said.

"Even better! Ask her if you can come spend the night at my house, we need to have a Bond movie marathon!"

In hindsight, suggesting a sleepover was not one of Dean's greater ideas. Well, it would've been a fantastic idea, if he didn't have a crush on Cas. But it was too late now, and Dean would just have to suffer in silence.

On the bright side, since Sam was at Kevin's house, Cas could sleep in Sam's room, and Dean wouldn't have to deal with the horrible hormonal torture that would've driven him insane if he were to share his own bed with Cas.

Cas called his mom and got her approval, and Dean sent his dad a text letting him know. John had said before that Cas was welcome at their house anytime, and Dean planned to take full advantage of that.

"Should we stop at my house so I can get a change of clothes?" Cas asked.

Dean stared off into space for a moment as he mentally kicked himself. Duh. Cas couldn't just sleep in a dress shirt and tie; as weird as he was, Cas was still a human being. And human beings didn't sleep in uncomfortable clothes.

"Yeah, of course, silly me," he replied, lightly thumping the heel of his palm against his forehead.

He took a detour and a few minutes later pulled into the driveway of the Novak house. Well, 'manor' was a better term- the place was HUGE.

"I won't be long," Cas said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. The moment both of his feet were out of the vehicle he sprinted into the large house in front of them.

Not even two minutes later, the door opened again and Cas clambered back into the seat.

Dean raised his eyebrows, impressed.

"You were right, that took no time at all."

"Gabriel was kind enough to pack my overnight bag for me," Cas explained.

"Huh. Sweet," Dean replied, "alright, let's go."

At about midnight, they were finishing up their third movie. As the credits started rolling, Castiel turned to Dean (Mr. Winchester had gone to bed halfway through the second movie so now it was just the two of them).

"Do these movies always end with Bond having intercourse with a woman? It's a rather unnecessary ending, couldn't they just conclude after his mission is completed?" he questioned.

Dean looked at him like he was crazy.

"You kidding? The sex at the end is one of the best parts!"

"But he barely even knows the woman, and there's always a different one in the next movie. Is he incapable of being in a committed relationship?" Castiel continued, "surely he wouldn't be intimate with these women if they didn't mean anything to him?"

Dean chuckled and shook his head.

"You're confusing lust with love. Those women don't mean anything special to him, it's all about physical attraction, and sexual desire," he explained.

Castiel narrowed his eyes in confusion, "why would he have sexual relations with someone he didn't love?" he asked.

"I guess you wouldn't really understand, being demisexual and all," Dean said, "but a lot of people have sex without any feelings or emotional bonds or whatever."

Castiel looked off into space, still confused. How could people be intimate without any sort of connection? It made no sense at all.

"Wouldn't that make it meaningless?" he thought aloud.

"Sure it would, but people don't really care about that. I mean, one night stands happen because people only want casual, meaningless sex. They're lonely or horny or whatever, and just want to feel that closeness, without being emotionally close to the other person," Dean responded.

Castiel looked back over at Dean. How did he know so much about this? He spoke as though he'd experienced it firsthand.

"Have you ever been intimate with a girl?" Castiel found himself asking. He had to know, before curiosity drove him crazy.

Dean's eyes widened slightly at Castiel's question, and he rubbed the back of his neck-a gesture Castiel had learned was a nervous habit that Dean had whenever he felt embarrassed or uncomfortable.

"Uh, well, uh, yeah. Yeah, I have," he said slowly, "more than once, actually."

Castiel's curiosity intensified, and he felt a surge of jealousy. Who had Dean been intimate with? How many girls had he been with? Why had they been worthy of Dean's affection and lustful desire when Castiel wasn't?

"Was any of it meaningless?" he questioned, with harshness in his voice.

Dean flinched a little at Castiel's tone, but answered, "sometimes, yeah it was meaningless."

He laughed a little bit, and carded his fingers through his dirty blonde hair.

"Looking back on it, I think I always tried to convince myself it meant something, but if it was really meaningless, I wouldn't have felt so terrible after every one," he added.

"How many?" Castiel asked, voice barely louder than a whisper.

Dean looked at him, and Castiel thought he saw a hint of fear in Dean's eyes.

"I don't think you want to know, Cas," he said, his voice gravely serious.

Castiel reached out and placed his hand over Dean's hand, which had been resting beside him on the couch.

"It's ok Dean, I'm not going to think of you any differently," he said tenderly, "you can tell me anything."

Dean took a deep breath.

"Alright, here goes. I lost my virginity in freshman year, to Cassie Robinson. We'd been dating since the previous year, and we figured it only made sense to go all the way. Plus, most of her friends had already started being sexually active. So, we did it. And it was great, but then we broke up a couple months later. Which sucked, 'cuz I really really liked Cassie. Next was Pamela Barnes, we got serious pretty quickly. I think at that time I had fallen under the influence that sex was a way to show affection, it was how you got girls to like you. Pamela was nice, and things were going great, but then I started to get anxious. I kept wondering if what happened with Cassie would happen again, and would I be able to commit to a serious relationship. I freaked out, and we broke up as a result. After that, there were a lot of short flings with various girls. At first it was just about any girl that was interested in me, one time I hooked up with a pair of twin girls," Dean paused for a moment, a dreamy look spread across his face, before continuing, "that was fun. Then there was most of the cheerleading team, Gordon plays on the football team so he introduced me. That's how I met Lisa. Lisa was gorgeous and outgoing, it didn't take long for us to get together. But our relationship became rocky, and we fell into what seemed like an endless cycle of off and on again- one week we'd be fighting or broken up, and then the next week we'd make up and everything was fine. This went on for months, literally months. But I didn't think anything wrong, because I was foolish and didn't know any better. It was Sammy who finally knocked some sense into me, and I realized I wasn't happy with Lisa. So I talked to her about it the next day, and we broke up for good. That was seven months ago. After that I gave up on relationships, because every time I get emotionally involved with a girl, I just fuck everything up. Short flings are all I'm really good for, and I'm ok with that."

While Dean had been talking, Castiel had just sat there, speechless, taking it all in. Once Dean was finished, he looked at Castiel, waiting for a response.

But Castiel didn't know what to say.

They just sat there on the couch, silent, until Dean turned away with a dejected sigh.

"I told you, you wouldn't have wanted to know," he said, and started to stand up, pulling his hand out from Castiel's grip.

Dean was walking away.

He needed to say something.

Anything.

Say something!

"Dean," Castiel blurted out, desperate to keep him from leaving, "Dean!"

Dean stopped, turning back to face him.

"What?"

"Don't think so low of yourself," he said, "it's not your fault your previous relationships didn't work out, those girls must not have been right for you."

"Then who is right for me, Cas?" Dean demanded, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

' _Me!_ ' Castiel thought immediately.

He _loved_ Dean, loved him so much it was painful. This unrequited infatuation was stronger than anything he'd ever felt before, stronger even than his feeling. for Balthazar had been.

But Dean couldn't know. He couldn't know because he could never return Castiel's feelings.

And Castiel didn't think he could handle being rejected again.

"I don't know," he told Dean, "but...but you shouldn't give up. Who knows, the right person could be sitting right in front of you."

The moments the words left his mouth Castiel regretted them. What was he thinking, saying something like that?! He might as well have held up a flashing neon sign that said ' **I HAVE ROMANTIC FEELINGS FOR YOU** ' in giant, bold letters.

Why couldn't he just keep his big mouth shut?

Dean was very confused and a little frustrated.

What was Cas talking about? Why did he look so serious? Why did he look so sad?

' _Who knows, the right person could be sitting in front of you._ '

What the **hell** did that mean? First, Cas doesn't say anything after Dean spilled his whole tragic backstory, and then he starts speaking in riddles?

Maybe Sam could decode what Cas said, his little brother was a child genius after all. Then again, that would mean telling Sam about being bisexual, and that he had a big gay crush on his best friend. But what else could he do? He couldn't ask Cas to translate himself, and asking his dad was out of the question.

"Dean?" Cas asked, sounding concerned.

"Huh?" Dean answered, snapping out of his thoughts, "oh sorry, I zoned out. Hey, uh, it's pretty late, we should probably go get some sleep."

Cas squinted his eyes a little and tilted his head slightly to the side, something he did when he was confused. Dean tried not to think about how cute it looked.

"You sure?" Cas questioned, "what about the other movies?"

Right. The movie marathon. He'd forgotten that was the whole reason Cas had come over for the night in the first place.

"Well, we could at least change into our pajamas," Dean said, shrugging, "I mean, you can't exactly be comfortable in that stuffy shirt and tie, can you?"

Cas looked down at his outfit, and looked back up at Dean.

"I suppose so. Do you mind if I use your bathroom? I'm not really comfortable getting undressed around other people," Cas admitted, looking away shyly.

"Uh, yeah, of course. Down the hall, door at the end," Dean replied, gesturing with his hand.

In the meantime, Dean walked to his room to go change into his own pjs. While he was pulling on a pair of sweatpants, he heard Cas call out from down the hall.

"Dean? Um, I have a slight….problem."

Dean paused, hands still on the tie-string waistband. He walked out of his room, and down to the bathroom, stopping right outside the closed door.

"What kind of problem?" he asked, starting to worry. Has Cas slipped and fallen? Did he knock something over and break it? Hell, did he become the next Teen Wolf?

"If you recall, I said that Gabriel had packed my overnight bag? Well, it seems that he forgot to pack me a shirt."

"O-oh," Dean stammered, face heating up as he processed the new information.

Cas was on the other side of the door. Without a shirt.

Cas.

Shirtless.

This was bad, this was very bad.

Dean cleared his throat, trying to keep his mind out of the gutter.

"Do-do you want to borrow one of my shirts?" he suggested.

"Yes please," came Cas's answer, almost immediately.

"Got it. Sit tight, I'll be right back."

Dean all but ran to his room, grabbed the first shirt he saw, checked to make sure it was clean, and sprinted back to the bathroom.

"Ok, I got one right here," he said, a little out of breath from the short burst of exercise.

The bathroom door opened slightly, just enough for an arm to shoot out. Dean pushed the shirt into open hand, which grabbed onto it and quickly pulled back inside, door closing behind it.

Dean took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair to calm himself down. He felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. He had wondered what Cas looked like underneath the shirt and sweater vest he always wore; but if he had peeked in the bathroom and seen Cas in whatever state of undress, he didn't think he would've been able to hold himself back.

The door opened again-this time all the way- and Cas stepped out.

He was wearing pajama pants with bees on them. Yes, bees. Cutesy little cartoon bumblebees buzzing around little cartoon bee hives. The shirt Dean lent him was his favorite AC/DC shirt, but he was too busy having a cuteness overload in his brain to be annoyed about it.

"Dean? Is something wrong?" Cas asked, doing his stupid little confused head tilt.

"No, it's nothing, I just-your pants," Dean blurted.

Cas rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Gabriel gave them to me for Christmas two years ago, I believe he thought it would be funny to pack them for me tonight," he said, frowning.

"I wouldn't call them funny, you look cute," Dean commented.

About five seconds later, he realized exactly what he'd just said.

"I-I mean, not cute as in, you're cute, wait, no, I'm not saying you aren't cute, I mean, just not cute, like, girly cute, or, like, attractive cute-wait- I'm not saying you're not attractive, I just meant the pants are attractive-wait, no, that's not what I meant, um, I meant..."Dean rambled like an idiot, his face turning red.

God, what was happening to him? He was supposed to be the cool and confident Dean Winchester, who could easily sweep any girl off her feet. Yet now, here he was, stumbling over his words, all coolness flown out the window. All because he accidentally let slip that he thought Cas looked cute in his ridiculous bumblebee pajama pants.

Luckily, before Dean could make an even bigger fool of himself, Cas pressed an index finger to his mouth, which effectively shut him up.

If Dean though his face was red, Cas's face matched a Maraschino cherry in color.

"I get what you're trying to say, Dean," he said quietly, looking up at him.

Dean could feel his pulse quicken as those piercing blue eyes gazed into his own green ones. Those eyes, the flush of his face, he was so _beautiful_ and it was becoming hard to breathe as they stood there, staring at each other.

Someone cleared their throat, breaking the tension as the two boys immediately jumped apart.

Castiel looked over to see who it was, and saw Mr. Winchester standing there, in his pajamas and robe, looking equally exhausted and irritated.

"Dad? I thought you were asleep?" Dean asked, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, while looking around distractedly.

"I was asleep. I woke up feeling thirsty, and was on my way to go get a glass of water, but instead I came across you two standing in the middle of the hallway, doing _god_ knows what, at half past one in the morning," Mr. Winchester grumbled, "you boys may not have school tomorrow, but that doesn't mean you can stay up until the wee hours of the night. Go on, off to bed."

Castiel and Dean both nodded in response.

"Night dad, see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Mr. Winchester, thank you again for letting me stay here tonight."

The door to Sam's room was closer to them than Dean's room, and when they got there, Dean paused.

"Hey, uh, Cas?" he asked, sounding a little nervous.

"Yes?" Cas responded.

"Thanks for listening today. Y'know, to my tragic backstory of failed relationships. Almost everyone judges me pretty harshly when they hear about it, but you didn't- hell, you tried to cheer me up about it," Dean said, placing his hand on Castiel's shoulder, "you're a good guy."

Castiel leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around Dean in a warm and gentle hug.

"I would never judge you Dean, you're my friend," he said, pressing his face into Dean's shoulder to hide his bashful smile.

"Goodnight Cas."

"Sleep well, Dean."

 **(Wow that was an adventure. A beautifully gay adventure! Of course, Castiel asks the real questions. I always wondered myself why Bond was always having sex with a woman at the end of the older movies, it made no sense to me. Of course, at the time, I was like 9 years old. So innocent and pure, what happened to me? [Answer: the internet, and terrible influence of my friends and boyfriend. They corrupted my pure innocent mind. #noregrets]**

 **Also, we finally hear Dean's tragic backstory! That block of text was a lot to write, let me tell you. But it was worth it, and it was absolutely necessary for the plot. You'll see why further on in the story.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the date-that-wasn't-a-date, the super gay staring contest, and the lovely and angsty mutual pining! I know I enjoyed writing it :D**

 **Please leave a review, let me know what you think! I'm so close to 100, it's crazy! I'm gonna do something special for the 100th reviewer, although I haven't quite decided what that is yet! I should have something by the next update, in the meantime go follow the tumblr page! The url is marchingbanddestiel, super easy to remember.**

 **Until next time, have a great day! I love you all!)**


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